


The Blank Pages at the End of the Atlas

by Sour_Idealist



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:43:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 37,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2134131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sour_Idealist/pseuds/Sour_Idealist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after the Gaea War, Percy and Annabeth are at Camp Half-Blood, training the students, treading water. Then a fairly straightforward task - get a vulnerable demigod child to safety - turns up an old friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blank Pages at the End of the Atlas

**Author's Note:**

> All right, here it goes: six months of labor. Many thanks to Gabe/[nonhumanperson](http://nonhumanperson.tumblr.com), for his efforts as a last-minute beta, to Jesse ([billyxkaplan](http://billyxkaplan.tumblr.com)) for the amazing art (because OH MY GOD, [go look at it you guys](http://billyxkaplan.tumblr.com/post/94734462017/for-the-riptide-pjobigbang-and-souridealists), and tell him how great it is because it is _gorgeous_ ), and especially to Scotty, Kate and Avery - who aren't even _in_ this fandom - for holding my hand as I fretted my way through this project. Finishing this story meant a lot to me, and I couldn't have done it without you guys.
> 
> Content notes include a not-small amount of sex, canon-typical violence, and erotic asphyxiation ( _please_ do not try this at home without more information than this fic provides, thank you). The title is from [this poem](http://chronodiegetic.tumblr.com/post/67905721355/neither-of-us-thought-wed-live-past-eighteen-and) by chronodiegetic on tumblr.

 

> _on the road, off the map,_  
>  in the silences between rings, the indentations of paragraphs.  
>  there are no road signs. we used the atlas for kindling  
>  fifty miles back. step on the gas. let the phone ring. let’s go.
> 
> _-_ "non seqitur", é.

**_i._ ** **_Percy_ **

Percy wakes up to a noseful of blonde hair.

He smiles, hooking his chin over Annabeth’s shoulder. “Morning,” he says, soft against the edge of her ear, feeling the rise and fall of her stomach under his palm.

Annabeth snuffles slightly and says, with the clear certainty of the still-asleep, “No.”

Percy doesn’t laugh so much as huff quietly in amusement before he buries his face in her hair, nose bumping her shoulder. The bed is warm, sheets in loose tangles around their legs, and Annabeth smells of sleepiness and her shampoo and his own aftershave and something else that’s only Annabeth. He closes his eyes and breathes her in, the early-morning sunlight soaking through his eyelids to turn the world red and warm.

There’s stuff to do, though, and finally he sighs and opens his eyes again, glancing at the blinking clock. 7:30. He sighs and starts disentangling himself from Annabeth, slipping out from under the covers. His towel is hanging off the chair next to the window, and he scoops it up and pauses to glance outside.

The view from the Big House is always lovely, the ocean shining in the distance and the cabins bright in the sun. There’s someone on the roof of the Hecate cabin, sprawled out flat on the roof; Percy wonders if he should ask somebody about that, but from here at least the kid looks happy enough. Smoke plumes rise from the dragon coiled around Thalia’s tree, the Fleece gleams in the sunlight, the Athena Parthenos and the two tall pillars of the Roman Passage send thin early-morning shadows across the hillside and host at least three pigeons and two seagulls. Birds like the Passage for some reason.

It looks almost nothing like it did when he first woke up on the Big House porch.

Percy shakes his head and flips the towel over his shoulders, making for their bathroom.

Annabeth is still asleep when he gets out of the shower, and he hitches his towel higher around his hips and leans over the bed to shake her shoulder. “Hey, Annabeth. It’s morning.”

“Mrrfgh.” She nestles deeper into the pillow, shaking her head. “Wednesday. Piper’s got the dagger lessons today.”

“She and Jason moved out last week, remember?” Percy says, twining his hand gently through her hair. “So you’ve got the Wednesday lessons now.”

“Ah, Hades,” Annabeth mutters, eyes still closed, and turns her face into the pillow. “Nrgh. Thanks.” She sighs and kicks her way free of the covers, shaking her head. “Is there any hot water left?”

“Of course,” Percy huffs, and hitches his towel higher around his waist. Annabeth blinks at him, opening her eyes, and grins, looking him up and down. He laughs and plants his hands on his hips, preening. “Something I can help with?”

“Be sure to let you know,” Annabeth says with a sleepy grin, and pulls herself to her feet. “Now. Shower.”

“Towel’s on the chair,” Percy says, pointing, and heads for the dresser. Annabeth pats his behind casually as she passes, and he snorts.

Twenty minutes later, they’re both headed down to the dining pavilion, still damp from the shower. Annabeth’s knife is strapped to her arm, and her hand is warm in Percy’s. The two of them have to hop a heap of planks from another new cabin for another new kid, almost-but-not-quite built in time for the summer’s arrivals. By the time they reach the head table, Percy is rubbing at his arm, at the black-burnt trident and the single sharp line and the sigil underneath, the mark of an honorable discharge from the Legion. He’s not sure when the habit started, but it’s old by now.

“Ah, there you are,” Chiron says, buttering a waffle. “Good morning. Alice, Leslie,” he gestures to two kids at one of the new tables, “this is Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, two of our senior counsellors. They’re no longer considered campers, but they stayed with us to help train all of you.”

Percy grins at the group and lifts a shoulder; Annabeth waves with one hand while grabbing at her cup with the other. “Coffee,” she murmurs like a prayer, “sugar, double cream.” Percy mouths the words along with her, and gets thumped on the arm for his trouble.

“When’d the new kids get here?” he asks, reaching for his own waffles. “I didn’t see them last night.”

“That would be because they arrived around four o’clock this morning,” Chiron says, tail twitching. “They’re twins – children of Hebe, so they’re not particularly powerful, but there are two of them, which complicates matters a bit.”

“Are they hurt?” Annabeth asks, pausing from her communion with the coffee. Percy waits too, but Chiron shakes his head, popping a bite of waffle into his mouth.

“Not at all. They had a bit of a run-in with something--they haven’t been very clear on what--and it frightened their father, but no one is hurt. They’ll probably be home again at the end of the summer without any trouble.”

“Good,” Annabeth says quietly, and returns to eating. Chiron clears his throat.

“This is related to something I wanted to talk to you two about, however. You see, there’s a young half-blood who I suspect will have somewhat more trouble getting here safely.”

“Shouldn’t that be the seekers’ job?” Annabeth asks, wrinkling her nose; Percy has the same question, but he also has a mouthful of rather chewy bagel; he makes an agreeing noise and attempts to swallow. Annabeth gives him a longsuffering look; Chiron either ignores him or doesn’t notice.

“Normally, yes,” he says, stamping one hoof. “But it’s something of a special case. She’s extraordinarily powerful – probably a Big Three child, actually – and _very_ young, young enough that she won’t be able to protect herself. The seeker in the area is rather young himself, and he thought he’d rather err on the side of caution. Frankly, I’m not sure it’s a terrible idea myself.” His mouth twitches. “Lupa will call me soft, but I’m willing to risk it.”

“And that explains why you’re not assigning this as a regular quest, either,” Annabeth says quietly, setting her fork down. “I understand. We’ll take good care of her.”

“Thank you, Annabeth,” Chiron says, looking at her carefully. Percy watches the way she watches the space where the pavilion ends, and settles his hand gently on her arm. She glances up at him with a small smile and looks back to Chiron.

“When should we leave?”

“After today’s morning classes, hopefully,” Chiron says, with a grateful smile. “I’m afraid it’s something of a drive – the girl lives in a town just outside Knoxville, in Iowa. I’ll give you directions.”

“What’s her name?” Percy asks, frowning. He pulls Riptide out of his pocket and taps the end of the pen against the table, thoughtful. Chiron raises his eyebrows.

“Ji-Min Park,” he says. “I don’t know anything else, I’m afraid.”

“Kay. Cool.” He bumps his knee against Annabeth’s, smiling at her. “It’ll be fun. A break before the summer really takes off and everything, right?”

“Just don’t set anything on fire this time,” she says over the rim of her coffee, eyebrows pointed.

“Okay, you’ve done it plenty too,” Percy says automatically, tipping his chair back, and had to scrabble for balance when a sudden memory makes him jolt. “Crap, I forgot I was going to set up the thing with the dummies for sword practice today –”

“You’d better hurry, then,” Annabeth says, shoving her chair back. “I had stuff I wanted to look over, too, so – see you after lessons?”

“Yup,” Percy says, leaning over to kiss her quickly, and hauls ass for the arena.

Sword lessons are easy, by now, as long as he remembers not to let Allison pair off with Adam until they’re both already tired, and not to let Jonas forget to drink anything, and to make sure Jaime doesn’t start doing that thing with her grip that’s easy not to notice until it messes her up, and to try and make sure nobody loses any eyes and they all keep getting better.

…So, okay, it’s not easy, but he doesn’t feel like a total fake anymore. He’s pretty sure they’re getting better – okay, he _knows_ they’re getting better, he’s pretty sure they’re getting better than they would be if they just stood here and practiced against each other without Percy doing anything.

“Break time,” he calls after a while, moving between them, trying not to squint into the sun. “Water’s over here, everybody drink up. Don’t sit down, you’ll really regret it, I promise.”

“We _know,_ boss,” Allison says, trying to fix her wilting Mohawk. “You say it every week.”

“Yeah, uh, how many times did you ignore me again?” Percy asks, rolling his eyes. He tosses her a water bottle. Shejumps forward to catch it as it spins towards her, holding it above her head like a trophy, and beams. “Hey, nice catch.”

“I should hope so,” she says, and cracks it open. Percy snorts and grabs for a bottle of his own, screwing it open, and because it is June, dumps it over his head, willing the water to hit him. It flows into his eyes, making him blink, making him straighten up and start to smile, gluing his shirt to his back.

Something about it makes him glance down at the palm of his hand, working it open and closed around the star-shaped scar sharp against his palm. He runs his tongue over his teeth, remembering when he was learning, how fast his arms started to ache from the weight of the sword and how easy it was for it to go flying. His kids aren’t learning as fast as he did, he’s pretty sure, but maybe he doesn’t remember right, or maybe it’s because Luke was a better teacher, or maybe it was the quests and the wars all pulling at him until he had to fight.

He sighs and chucks the water bottle at the trash can.

When the lesson’s over, he trudges up to the Big House, where Annabeth is waiting next to one of the camp vans with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder.

“I grabbed our quest bag,” she says, waving at him. “It’s still stocked, I double-checked. Do you stink?”

“Nah, I mostly just told the kids what to do better.” Percy runs his hand over the clean white hood of the van, patting it gently. “Be something cool. And speedy.”

With a faint _gloop_ , the van shrinks into a bright white sports car. Annabeth gives him a slow look over the now-much-lower hood. “Really, Percy? We’re picking up a preschooler in this.”

“Uh, something fast and safe for a kid?”

“And sturdy,” Annabeth adds pointedly, settling her own hand on the other side of the hood. With a somewhat slower glooping noise, the sports car morphs into a four-door sedan. The license plate, Percy notices, is D3LP11.

“That works, I guess,” Percy says, looking somewhat sadly at its stolid square frame. “Hey, can you be red?” With an earsplitting screech, the car alarm goes off. “Crap!” The keys are on the front seat; Percy makes a frantic dive for them, nearly hitting himself with the door as he yangs it open, and manages to shut the alarm off by about the twelfth painfully loud honk.

When he looks up, Annabeth is laughing at him.

“Right, not red,” he says, patting the seat gingerly. “White is fine. Uh, sorry.”

“Good going, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth says, straightening. “So, anything else you wanna do, or should we just… go?”

“I think I’m good,” Percy says, rubbing his thumb over the comforting bump of the Riptide pen in his pocket. “Hey, do you wanna drive, or –”

“No, thanks,” Annabeth said, sliding into the passenger seat. “I had some things I wanted to write down, anyway.”

“Kay.” Percy shrugs, puts the former van in gear, and with a whirring of pebbles they leave Camp Half-Blood behind them. Annabeth roots around in the duffel, which Percy is pretty sure she’s enhanced because it doesn’t usually have a pad of yellow paper and some spare pencils tucked into it, and starts sketching, apparently unconcerned about curves and bumps ruining the lines of her design.

The radio takes some fidgeting and swearing to work, for some reason, and Percy’s cursed his way through three commercial breaks and gotten them past two freeway exits before Annabeth sighs and tucks her pencil behind her ear, where it promptly slides back and ends up precariously suspended in her hair. Her fingers drum, totally out of rhythm with the song, on the pad of paper, where she leaves graphite fingerprints.

“Watch the road, Percy,” she says.

“I am!” he protests, leaning pointedly forward over the steering wheel. “So, what’re you working on?”

“I’m not really sure,” she says. The radio starts talking cheerfully about buying a new car, and she slaps the mute button, sighing through her nose. “A few notes about the dagger class, first, and after that, just… sketches. Facades, floor plans. I don’t know for what. Some of it’s stuff I wish I’d done on Olympus, some of it’s ideas for a house, the rest of it… I don’t know. I just wanted to get it down.”

“Cool.” Percy nods. He should, actually, watch the road, but when he glances sideways he can see her playing with a corner of the pad, folding it over and over and over again and rolling it back out until the paper’s worn enough to feel like cloth. …Okay, he doesn’t know that part, but it’s how corners of all his notebooks tended to end up, at least when they didn’t get turned into paper airplanes, so.

“We should leave camp more often,” he says quietly, as they slide past a set of billboards for house insurance and something that’s either beer or a strip club, he can’t tell. They’ve been on camp grounds since Christmas.

“Yeah,” Annabeth says, softly, and reaches for the radio. It’s now advertising a nearby bar, and she turns it back off with a sigh. “Okay, let’s start counting license plates. We’ve got New York, Pennsylvania – Florida?”

“How do you even read that fast –“

**ii. Annabeth**

They pull into the parking lot of the little hotel at nine o’clock. It’s a local place, Annabeth guesses, sizing it up – designed to evoke cottages and old-fashioned charm, not to look glamorous. There are shutters on the windows and a little pillared porch.

Percy yawns, jaw-splitting, as he slides out of the car, and Annabeth laughs, sliding her arm around his waist. “Come on, Seaweed Brain,” she says, squeezing him gently, “let’s go.” The path is gravel, and her feet slide a little as the two of them make their way in.

Behind the reception desk, a young woman in a denim jacket and glossy-beaded cornrows looks up from a magazine and smiles, warm and bright. “Hey!” she says. Her name tag reads JEAN. “Let me guess – one room, queen bed?”

“Yeah,” Annabeth says, bumping Percy with her hip, and tries to hide a yawn. “Do you have anywhere?”

“Oh, yeah, plenty,” she says with a smile, fumbling under the desk. “Here’s a card for Room 27 – names?”

“Annabeth Chase,” she says, showing her driver’s license, and gets the keycard in return. The woman smiles again as she hands it over.

“In this house and in this place,” she says, soft and steady, “be welcome and rest easy.” Annabeth blinks, but before she can say anything the woman grins, light sparkling off the beads in her hair. “The stuff on the nightstand is totally complimentary, so enjoy it.”

Finding the room is easy, and Annabeth shucks her jeans and slides her bra out from under her T-shirt as soon as the door is shut. When she turns around, Percy’s stripped down to his boxers, and he smiles and slides his arms around her.

“Love you,” he murmurs, sleepy, kissing her forehead, and she smiles, leaning into him.

“C’mon,” she says into his collarbone, breathing him in, “bedtime.”

The sheets are soft enough, the room cool in spite of the season, and she curls into the bed with the warmth of Percy at her back and forces herself to close her eyes.

When she comes awake it’s slow and softly peaceful, and she finds herself loose-limbed and warm. Most nights she wakes with knots in her spine and stinging lips, or a rough weary sense of shaky sleep. Today the room is sunlit, warm on her face, and Percy’s hands brush her skin just above her hips.

“You awake?” he murmurs, soft on her neck. She smiles.

“Yeah, I am,” she says, curling in against the pillow. His hand wanders from her ribs over the curve of her hip to slide along the back of her thigh, and she smiles, shifting slightly against the mattress.

“Wanna…?” he breathes into her hair. Her smile turns into a grin, and she wraps her hands around his wrists and flips the two of them over, shaking off the bedsheets.

“Sure,” she says, holding him down against the mattress. Her hair falls over her shoulders, and he grins up at her, his hair falling into his eyes. “How’s this?”

“Sweet,” he says, licking his lips. “Tell me whatever.”

She drags his wrists up over his head, wrapping his hands around the slats of the bedframe. “Don’t let go,” she warns, sitting back, watching the cords of his arms and the way having him pinned down like this pulls all the muscle in him to the surface. She runs her fingers over his arm, down to his chest.

“You got it, ma’am,” he breathes, tongue flickering over his lips again, and she leans in to kiss him, twisting one hand into his hair. He cranes up into her, mouth open and eager under hers, and she scrapes her teeth along his lip and tugs at his hair a little, just enough to make him hiss. The bed creaks as he leans up, trying to get closer to her, hands still clutched tight to the bed as ordered, and her stomach flutters with the delight of that.

“Good boy,” she whispers, and fastens her teeth against his collarbone, sucking as hard as she can. He whimpers, high and soft, and she slacks off just a little, focusing more on the pressure of her mouth than the force of it before she digs her teeth back in. He groans, shifting, and she can feel his cock against her thigh. She lets go of him at last, and he exhales; when she sits up, he’s beaming.

“Leave a mark?” he asks.

“Oh yes.” She runs her fingers over the bright red starburst on his skin, flicking one finger against it. She’s aware her grin is a little lupine; she doesn’t care. “Mine,” she murmurs, leaning down to dot a kiss to the spot.

“Duh,” he breathes, tilting his head sideways to kiss her neck. She laughs softly and runs her hands over his body, his ribs, the muscles of his chest, one hand coming to rest over the soft skin of his throat. She presses down softly, and he shakes his head.

“Not this morning?” he asks.

“Okay.” She pulls her hand away, back to his chest, and kisses him again, soft and reassuring. “Cool.”

“Thanks,” he says, looking sheepishly up at her. She always likes that, seeming him spread out and trusting underneath her. “I just…”

“Don’t be stupid,” she says, and kisses him again. “It’s fine.” She sits back enough to reach down and palm his cock over his boxers, laughing triumphantly at his sharp intake of breath. “Good?”

“Ohhhh yes,” he breathes, dropping his head back against the pillow. She slides two fingers through the slit in his boxers to trace her fingers along the length of his dick, shifting herself slightly against his thigh. He’s biting his lip again, his eyes swollen dark and fixed on her, and she grins, warm with sex and triumph.

“Oh, I –” A thought, a want hits her, and she clambers forward, half-shuffling until she can settle her knees on either side of Percy’s head, gripping the headboard to hold herself up. She settles one hand over Percy’s, catching her breath. “Okay?”

“Oh fuck yes,” he says, indistinct, and laps at her clit over her panties, his tongue hot and rough even through the cotton. She sways slightly, arching her back as he pushes the fabric up against her, into her, and she meant this to be a quick thing but he drags his lip against her cunt and she reaches down to pull her underwear as far aside as she can.

He hums happily and slides his tongue along the length of her slit, rougher and more vivid than a moment ago, and she shivers, resting her forehead against the wall.

“More,” she says, “more,” and he obliges, flicking his tongue one-two-three-four against her clit and then licking her open again, three long slow strokes of his tongue before he goes back to lapping at the top of her cunt, the sides, pushes his tongue back into her. It shivers through her, making her sway again, making her bite her lip and clench her hands, gasping. “Good – yes – more, fuck, gods, more, that’s –”

“Always,” he murmurs, dropping his head back long enough to breathe, and pushes up again, his nose bumping cold and startling against her a split second before his breath, and then his mouth is back again. Her eyes are closed, and the headboard digs into her palms, and the hot friction of his tongue is the only thing she’s aware of in the world.

Finally, trembling and close, she takes one hand from the headboard to press against his forehead, whispering “Enough.” It’s an awkward, messy slither back along him, but she doesn’t care, braces herself on either side of his hips and looks down on him. He smiles back at her, his mouth shining-slick and bright, and she leans in to kiss him roughly. Her own taste is thick and heady-sour on his lips.

“Good boy,” she breathes again, and squirms out of her own soaked underwear, one hand planted on his stomach. His eyes flicker from her face to lower, staring at her, and she all but rips his boxers away from him, letting him kick them off into the room. His cock springs free, almost funny if she didn’t _want_ so badly, and she sinks down onto him. It’s just this side of painful, less from the stretch than the sheer intensity. He groans, throat long and pale and gorgeous in the sunlight, every vein and muscle standing out as he arches back.

“Fuck,” she says softly, bracing her hands on his shoulders again, and rides him, his cock dragging inside her as she moves. She’s close, so close, rocking her hips faster and faster. It’s a thousand things at once: the heavy pressure of his cock inside her, his eyes fixed on her face, his skin sticky and flushed under her palms, the want for _more, deeper,_ the way that was hers for the taking, maybe most of all the way he still clung obedient to the frame of the bed.

When she comes, it’s a gasp that rocks all through her body, leaving her with her head thrown back and her whole body tensing, holding every muscle taut for a split second of sheer overwhelming want before she collapses, shoulders slack, air easing back into her lungs with a steady easiness. Percy jerks up underneath her – once, twice – and she can feel him coming, thick and heavy inside her. Done, spent, he opens his eyes.

“Whew,” he says, quietly, and grins up at her, shaky and delighted. She laughs and leans down, sliding off of him. It leaves her tender, almost aching, _good_ , and she curls up against his chest, petting his hair. He’s still holding on to the headboard.

“You can let go now,” she says, tugging at one arm; he blinks, chuckles, and settles both his arms over her back. She laughs, resting her head against his chest, and for a few golden moments they lie there in the sunlight.

Finally Annabeth sits up, stretching out her back. “Dibs on first shower,” she says. “We really do need to get going.”

“Yeah.” Percy sighs, reaching up to touch her hair, and then rolls up to a seat himself. A pillow slides off the bed, inch by inch, landing on the floor with a ponderous thump, and Annabeth laughs.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” she says, and makes for the bathroom.

The hotel shampoo is surprisingly nice, vanilla-scented and sweet, and the water is hot and strong. It doesn’t take long to get their stuff together. She pockets the chocolate bars that were surprisingly enough on their nightstand, and by the time she shuts the door behind them and makes for the lobby, surprisingly little of her sunlit morning mood has faded.

Jean from last night is still on the front desk, still flipping through a magazine while the beads in her hair cast flecks of light over the carpet, and when Annabeth coughs and slides the camp credit card over the counter, Jean looks up and says, “Actually, could I get that in denarii?”

Annabeth goes for the knife at her waist without a second thought, and Percy is at her side with Riptide out of his pocket – though not uncapped – before she can blink. Jean holds her hands up, laughing. “Hey, hey, Pluto’s pants, relax. I’m not going to be an issue. This isn’t the Lotus.”

“Can we not talk about Hades’s pants?” Percy says faintly, slowly lowering his hand. “The souls of the damned are kind of a freaky fashion statement.”

Jean laughs, bright and cheerful. She has slightly crooked but totally unfanglike teeth. “Fair enough! But right, you’re Greek, duh.” She nods at Annabeth’s shirt. “Sorry. Should’ve realized you wouldn’t recognize me.”

“Sorry,” Annabeth says, trying not to twitch, “but who _are_ you, exactly?”

Jean looks at her, and Annabeth has to grip the desk. Her eyes are the rich brown of old oak and a rushing muddy brook and thick rich earth, and for a moment her grey jeans and green shirt are the rolling hills and the mountain-spine stone. “I am this town,” she says, “since the moment it grew larger than Hecate’s crossroads, since the moment someone saw the shape of the hills and said how good it was to be home. Under me it is a haven, and under me it is protected, by my nature and my name.”

She blinks, and Annabeth steps back, swaying on her feet, nowhere close to a proper battle-stance. “Genius loci,” she whispers.

The woman behind the counter shrugs. “If you like,” she says, and smiles, and suddenly she’s in ragged clothing and her eyes are only brown. “Or I’m Jean Westbridge. And I hope you’ve had a pleasant stay. Oh, and if you don’t have denarii, drachmas are almost as good. Plastic works, though, mortals stay here all the time.”

“Uh.” Annabeth blinks, blinks again, and digs into her bag. “Uh, we have denarii, actually… how much?”

“Twenty, please.” Jean grins and shakes her magazine open again, and Annabeth drops the money on the counter and makes for the door.

Blinking into the sunlight outside clears her head a little. The trees fall heavily over the path to the parking lot, flowers line the sidewalk, and she rubs at her eyes and shakes her shoulders straight. Percy bumps her hip with his, just soft enough to remind her that he’s there.

“So, what’s a genius loci exactly?” he asks as they make their way down the path.

“The spirit of a place,” Annabeth says, trying not to care suddenly about the way the road curls gently around the thin young trees. “A little like a naiad, maybe, but for something larger, a valley or a town or something. They can’t leave their particular sphere of influence, but on their own ground, protecting their own place, they can be really powerful.” She leans against the car, blinking hard again. “I’ve never met one before. They don’t always manifest as human like that.”

“Did she do something to you?” Percy asks, hovering by her shoulder. He brushes a strand of hair out of her face, and she holds back a laugh, leaning into his hand.

“Not on purpose, I think,” she says. “She just… showed me what she was. Not all of her, but – most. More of her than any of the major gods let us see of them. It’s a little much.”

“Okay.” Percy wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close, quick and tight, before he steps back. “So, maybe I should drive first?”

A laugh shakes out of her this time. “Probably a good idea, yeah.”

They drive on. Three bumpy roads later they find their way back to the highway, brushing aside vague worries about collateral damage if anything challenges them. (It’s not like they weren’t driving through suburbs, anyway.) For two hours in Ohio they have clear reception from a classic rock station, and Percy steers the car with his knees while he air-guitars along with “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” His hair falls into his eyes, and Annabeth laughs at him and sings along. They grab lunch at a Burger King a hundred miles after that, and Annabeth takes over driving while Percy messes with the radio and naps through most of Illinois.

It’s late afternoon – long shadows stretched out across the golden light – when they pull up to the address Chiron gave them, a little white clapboard ranch house with a rosebush in the yard. Annabeth stretches her arms over her head, snorting when she catches Percy’s eyes flickering over her, and the two of them make their way up the little brick path to the door.

The doorbell chimes loudly enough to make her jump, and there’s a shout of “Coming!” and a soft thud before the door swings open to reveal a woman three inches shorter than Annabeth with a glossy black ponytail and a tattoo of the night sky stretching across her shoulder.

“Hello,” she says, raising her eyebrows at the two of them. “What can I help you with?”

“I’m Annabeth Chase,” she says, sticking her hand out, “and that’s Percy Jackson.” The woman blinks twice, eyebrows inching slightly higher. “We’re from Camp Half-Blood.”

“Ah, I see.” Her eyebrows come in for a landing, and she shakes Annabeth’s hand, then Percy’s – soft skin and a strong grip, Annabeth notices, and she finds herself smiling. “I’m Linda Park. You’ll be here to look after Ji-Min, then? Come on in, come on in. I’m very grateful. They’re just in the living room,” she says, jerking her head to the right. “Give me just a moment, I’m sorry, I’ve got someone on the phone, I’ll get rid of him in a second, go ahead.”

 _They?_ Percy mouths at Annabeth as they go in. She shrugs, fiddling with her ponytail, and heads down the hallway Linda indicated.

The first door opens onto an expanse of nubbly green carpet currently hosting a vast network of wooden train tracks. In the middle of the setup is a girl with shiny pigtails and a jelly-stained shirt, a wooden train with a face on it in one hand, chattering happily at a long-limbed teenager with shaggy dark hair. He’s kneeling on the floor and listening solemnly, and Annabeth doesn’t recognize him until he looks up and goes utterly stone-still.

“ _Nico?_ ” Percy says behind her.

“Percy.” He says it slowly, guarded, and stands up. “Annabeth. Hello.”

“Hello.” Annabeth coughs. “Uh. Why exactly are you in Iowa playing with Thomas the Tank Engine?”

“It’s not _Thomas,_ ” the little girl – Ji-Min – scolds her, holding up the little train for her inspection. “This is Gordon. I left Thomas at the playground by accident but that’s okay because I never liked him that much.”

“Sorry, my mistake.” Annabeth clears her throat and leans down to hold out one hand to the girl, who grins and drops the train to shake it. “My name is Annabeth, and this is Percy. Are you Ji-Min?”

“Yes,” Ji-Min says solemnly. “It’s very nice to meet you.” Annabeth forces herself not to laugh.

“It’s very nice to meet you too,” she says, and straightens up. “Nico?”

“The augur at Camp Jupiter figured out about Ji-Min,” Nico says, settling one hand on the back of her head. “They couldn’t do anything, since she’s Greek, but they wanted her to be safe, and Hazel asked me to go protect her. So...” He shrugs.

“He’s been with us for a few months now,” Linda says, appearing behind them. “He’s been a lifesaver.” There’s a steely warning to the set of her jaw, and Annabeth blinks, looking from her to Nico, who’s still staring at her and Percy.

“Well, thank you,” she says, sticking her hands in her pockets and drawing them out again, linking her fingers in front of her. Next to her, Percy clears his throat.

“Well, it’s good to see you, dude,” he says, stilted. Nico nods, one quick jerk of his head, and digs his hands into the pockets of his coat.

“You’ll stay the night with us, of course,” Linda says, looking between the three of them. “Surely you’ve spent enough time in the car for one day?”

“Ohhh yes,” Percy says immediately, wincing, and she laughs.

“Well, that’s that, then. I’ll make extra spaghetti. Annabeth can take my bed, I’ll just put fresh sheets on it, and you boys can share the guest room, maybe –”

“Uh, no,” Nico says, as Annabeth’s mouth opens around _Oh, I couldn’t._ “Thank you, but I’ll just take the couch, and Percy and Annabeth can take the guest room, it’ll be fine. I’ll go get the sheets now.”

“Oh, is that how it is – okay, they can take my bed, and I’ll take the couch, it’s my home.” Linda nods briskly, brushing her hands against each other.

“Oh, no, c’mon, we can’t kick you out of your bed,” Percy says, startled. “Uh, we’ll figure something out, but –”

“You can’t think – oh!” Linda snaps her fingers. “I’m an idiot, there’s an airbed in the attic, a double. I’ll just set that up in here, and –”

“We’ll sleep there,” Annabeth says immediately. “Thank you very much, that’s wonderful.”

“Well…” Linda eyes them, then shrugs. “All right, then. Ji-Min, honey, that means you’re going to have to clean up all this.”

“But Gordon and Emily need to get the coal to the island before everybody _freezes,_ ” Ji-Min protests, holding up her train to make the point. “It’s really important, they’ve all got icicles on their noses and their feet are falling off and –”

“Their _feet_ are falling off?” Linda shakes her head. “Where’d you even – all right, finish up quickly, but in ten minutes I want you to start packing up.”

“But –”

“They can get there in ten minutes, surely,” Nico says, crouching down to unfold her fingers from the little train and settle it back on the track. “You can make it like a race. And then I’ll help you clean up, it’ll be quick.”

Ji-Min contemplates this, chewing her lip, and finally grants Nico a slow nod. “That sounds fair.” She glances up at Percy and Annabeth, visibly straightens, and asks, “Would you two like to play?”

“Uh…” Annabeth begins. Percy shrugs.

“Sure, I guess,” he says, settling to a careful seat in a loop of the track. Annabeth tries the same, and gets a tap on the knee for her trouble.

“You can’t sit there,” Ji-Min explains. “That’s the lake. You can sit over there, though. It’s not anything.” She points to a different patch of perfectly clear floor, and Annabeth blinks and relocates herself, settling her duffle in her lap. She’s pretty sure Nico’s mouth twitches; Percy shrugs at her.

“So,” Ji-Min says, putting her train back on the track, “they’d only just got past the _wolves,_ and…” And Percy and Annabeth share wide-eyed, blinking glances as Nico di Angelo, still all shadowed eyes and skinny bones wrapped up in an battered jacket, back ramrod straight, listens with seemingly rapt attention to a complicated tale involving races, coal, attack by dragons, and rescue by “icky-tho-taurs.”

“Ichthyocentaurs only live in the ocean, I think,” Nico says, when she’s done explaining this. “I think the heroes they train can go on quests to lakes, though, so I guess they might be able to.” Ji-Min nods slowly.

“But they do rescue people.”

“As long as you’re honest, anyway,” Nico says, nodding. “If you’re near them.”

“Tell me about your sister and the icky-tho-taurs again?” Ji-Min asks. “And the brownies? And the hissing?” Nico winces.

“Well, we have to clean up first,” he says, gesturing. “And, uh… you know what, these two were there.” He tilts his head towards Percy and Annabeth, not quite looking. “Maybe they can tell you about that.” Ji-Min whirls on them immediately, eyes wide.

“You met icky-tho-taurs?!”

“Ick-thy-o-cen-taurs,” Annabeth says, spacing the syllables carefully out. “Actually.”

“And no, we didn’t,” Percy says, scowling. Annabeth laughs.

“He sulked for _hours,_ ” she says, grinning at Ji-Min. She grins back, then frowns, looking from them to Nico.

“Were you there, or weren’t you? You never mentioned them _before,_ ” she accuses Nico, scowling. He ducks his head, carefully dismantling pieces of track.

“They were on the same boat as Hazel and her friends,” he says. “They didn’t actually _meet_ the ichthyocentaurs, but they were there. Sort of.”

“Hm.” Ji-Min seems to accept this, and turns back to Percy and Annabeth. “So. Tell me the story.”

“Uh, there’s not really that much to tell…” Percy says, glancing at Annabeth. She shrugs; Ji-Min purses her lips.

“About the seashells doors!” she says. “And the claw-horns, and the brownies, and the coral combs, and the fish tails, and the mer-heroes. And everything.”

Percy laughs, a little forced. “It sounds like you know the story pretty well. Maybe you could tell _us,_ instead?”

Ji-Min regards him as if he’d just suggested that they all swallow live spiders for their health. “No,” she says. “I want to _hear_ it.”

“Uh, Ji-Min,” Nico interjects, carefully dismantling a bridge, “the story might not be exactly the same when they tell it, since Hazel probably told it to them a little differently…”

“That’s okay,” Ji-Min says, scooting forward. “Tell it anyway.”

Percy glances at Annabeth, who shrugs again, and sighs. “Okay, so. Things are complicated between them and my dad, Poseidon,” he pauses, but Ji-Min just leans one head pointedly on her fist and makes a face at him until he continues, “so I didn’t actually get to meet them, but Hazel and Frank and Leo were down there all night, and when they came back up, they told us…”

Annabeth shrugs and joins Nico in picking up the train track, while Percy stumbles through the details of the underwater camp.  

**iii. Percy**

At dinner that night, Ji-Min takes one look at the people grouped about the table and tugs at her mother’s sleeve. “Mom, I have a lot of work to do tonight,” she says, ducking her head when Percy looks at her. “I wanna eat at my play table.”

Linda glances down at her, up at the rest of them, and shrugs one shoulder. “Okay, honey. If you’re sure you want to.” She hands Ji-Min a plate with a sandwich on it, and Ji-Min scurries off to a paper-covered table in the corner of the kitchen, tucking herself into the chair. Linda glances back towards the rest of them and smiles. “She’s picked up bad habits from me, I guess. Sit, sit.”

Percy obeys, settling next to Annabeth at the little dark-wood table. It looks fairly new, and maybe like it’s not real wood, and then Linda settles the bowl of steaming spaghetti on the table in front of him and everything becomes the smell of tomato and garlic.

“This looks _amazing_ ,” he says, and Linda smiles.

“Glad you think so! It’s the only Western recipe I know that I got from my mother. Here’s hoping it tastes as good as it looks,” she adds, passing the ladle to Annabeth. “So, you guys will be setting off in the morning, I guess. It’s a long drive, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, we’ll get a hotel midway through,” Percy says, loading up his fork. He almost continues with a mouthful of pasta, but that’s the kind of thing that gets him smacked upside the head whenever he goes home, so he swallows. “Does she get carsick, or anything?”

“She never has, thank God,” Linda says. “She gets bored easily, though. I’ll put a bag together tonight, some books, toys, stuff like that. Hopefully it’ll keep her from bouncing through the roof too early.”

“You seem awfully calm about this,” Annabeth observes, fingers clenched around her fork. Her knuckles stand out white, and Percy winces, bumping her knee with his under the table. Linda shrugs, shoving spaghetti sideways on her plate.

“Well, it’s just a few months,” she says. Her hair falls in front of her eyes, a glossy curve. “And nothing ever got better by moping about it, I suppose. You just have to do your best.”

“Um.” Percy scrapes the side of his fork along the edge of the plate.. “I mean, we’ll do our best, but if she’s as powerful as you say, training her will just make her more noticeable, and I mean, uh…”

“She might not be able to come home in the fall,” Annabeth says. Percy nods, licking his lips. “It might not be safe. I’m not sure…”

“Oh, hells, did I not say?” Linda shakes her head, shoving her hair behind her ears. “I know, Chiron explained. I’m moving up to New York at the end of the summer – it’s the soonest I could do it, arrange for my job to transfer and all of that.” She shrugs, eyes fixing on the middle distance. “At first I’d thought we’d move up there together, but, well, we kept having trouble, and –”

“I’m probably not helping there,” Nico says, somewhat sheepishly. “A daughter of Zeus and a son of Hades in the same place –”

“It was getting worse even before you got here,” Linda says, shaking her head. “And with her learning more and more – maybe I shouldn’t have told her so soon, but she asked me who her father was, and I didn’t want to lie to her.” For a moment she looks older, wearied, and then she shakes her head. “Anyway, maybe it’s just as well. I wouldn’t want her to arrive just as everyone else is leaving. And it’s just a few months.”

“I see,” Annabeth says softly. “That’s – good of you, to move.” Linda shrugs.

“She’s my daughter. What else could I do, make her fight for her life? Lose her? I was tired of Illinois anyway, and I’ve never lived on the east coast. I know I won’t be able to see her every day,” she adds. Her voice cracks. “But we’ll work something out.”

“Yeah.” Percy clears his throat. “Uh. We’ll take good care of her, I promise.”

“Thank you.” Linda smiles, thin and stubborn, and for a moment she looks like Reyna back in the days of the war. Percy blinks, dropping his eyes to the tablecloth, and when he looks up Linda is a short-haired Korean woman in her thirties and could not look less like the praetor of Camp Jupiter.

Forks scrape off plates; glasses clink against the table. In the corner, Ji-Min hums a little thread of a song and stops herself after a few bars, tapping her fingers against the table. Percy nearly drops an entire forkful of spaghetti into his lap, and manages to look about two years old in the process of salvaging it.

“This is delicious, Linda,” Nico says into the silence, settling his fork next to his half-eaten plate of pasta. Linda smiles at him, not quite reaching her eyes.

“Thank you,” she says. “I’d offer to teach you, but I’m guessing you don’t cook much.” Nico nods, shrugging one shoulder, and folds his hands on his lap.

Dinner ends not long after that, and as they’re clearing up Ji-Min sidles over.

“Mom?” she asks, tugging at her mother’s jeans. She glances suspiciously at Percy and Annabeth again, and leans up on tiptoe to say, “Can we watch a movie tonight?”

“It’s not a Friday,” Nico says, reaching down to tug lightly at one pigtail, but Linda smiles, looking at the edge of the counter.

“I guess we can watch a movie anyway,” she says, shrugging one shoulder. “It’s a special occasion, after all. Why don’t you go pick one out?”

Ji-Min smiles, spinning on one heel to bolt out of the kitchen, and stops at the door, linoleum squeaking as she spins back. “Thank you, Mom!” she calls, and then vanishes with a clatter of footsteps down the hall.

“You guys go ahead,” Nico says, tilting his head after her. “I’ll clear up in here.”

Nico doesn’t appear at any point during _The Princess and the Frog_ , unless Percy misses him while Dr. Facilier is menacing all of New Orleans and Tiana is completely stuck as a frog. Ji-Min is fast asleep in her mother’s lap by the end of the movie, and Linda hitches her up on one hip and smiles at them.

“Lemme go put Shrimp here to bed,” she says, kissing her daughter’s forehead, “and then I’ll get you two set up with the air mattress and everything. I have some work I need to do and then I’ll probably turn in early. Will you two be all right?”

“Of course,” Percy says easily. “Hey, if you tell us where the sheets and stuff are, we can just get to it, if you like?”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’ll just take a minute,” Linda says, already vanishing down the hall, and sure enough, fifteen minutes later Percy and Annabeth are sprawled out on the mattress, stripped down for bed, settled in a little island of golden light from the lamp that Linda carefully settled on the floor beside them.

“So,” Annabeth says, rolling over to lean her forehead against Percy’s shoulder. “Nico di Angelo.”

“Hm? Oh, yeah.” Percy shakes his head, exhaling slowly. “I still don’t know what his deal is. It’s kind of…”

“Yeah.” Annabeth shifts, her hair fanning out over the mattress. “I don’t understand him either.”

“It’s not – well, okay, it’s that, but it’s not _just_ that,” Percy says, stretching the arm not wrapped around her up over his head. “It’s like – I owe him a lot, and I just, I don’t think there’s anything I can do to pay him back. You know?”

“It makes sense,” Annabeth says, settling her head on his chest. Percy combs his fingers through her hair, picking strands apart. She smells like lavender and a little bit of sweat. “At least he seems like he’s doing okay.”

“That’s something, I guess.” He sighs, curling closer around her.

“I did _not_ think he’d be good with kids,” Annabeth murmurs into his shoulder. He shrugs.

“Maybe zombies are childish?”

She laughs, her breath warm against his shoulder. “Sure. Zombies are childish.”

“What? It’s possible. They don’t talk very clearly and they smell funny.”

“I thought you _liked_ kids,” she says. All he can see is the back of her head, but she only sounds like that when she’s smiling. He smiles himself.

“I do like kids,” he says, kissing her hair. “Kids are cool. But they do stink a lot.”

“And we get to spend tomorrow in a car with a five-year-old,” Annabeth says, and shakes her head. “We should probably catch up on sleep. I just hope she doesn’t get carsick.”

“Ew.” Percy tugs the blankets up around him. “Maybe we can burn an offering. Who’s in charge of carsickness?”

“Apollo, maybe?” Annabeth muses. The second half of the word gets lost in a yawn. “Medicine. Or Asclepius. Although they might take offense.”

“What? If health is their _job_ …” Percy shrugs. “Eh, whatever. Hopefully they’ll like cereal.”

“Please don’t wake everyone up by setting fire to Raisin Bran,” Annabeth says, and reaches past him to turn out the light.

Breakfast the next morning is quiet. Ji-Min eats at the table with everyone, which is something, although she hunches over her cereal and refuses to look at anybody. Annabeth tries to get her mug to produce coffee and kicks Percy lightly in the ankle when he laughs. Linda doesn’t talk much, just stares at her own tea, and Nico sits in the corner nibbling toast and blinking like a disturbed bat in pale-blue plaid pajama pants. There’s something seriously weird about the pajama pants. They just don’t match up.

After breakfast Percy and Annabeth mostly hover in the hallway while packing happens. Percy’s pretty sure he overhears an in-depth conversation about making sure a stuffed animal can breathe, and is suddenly extraordinarily glad that Camp Half-Blood has Rachel instead of an augur. But after about two hours of waiting, the five of them are on the lawn with two duffels and a suitcase, and everything falls apart.

“Mom,” Ji-Min says, tugging at her mother’s hand. “I don’t want to go.”

“Oh, honey,” Linda says, smoothing her hair down. “I love you, baby. I don’t want you to go either, but it’s best.”

“ _No,_ ” Ji-Min says, shaking her head so hard her pigtails bounce. “I’m staying. I’m not going, you can’t make me.”

“Uh…” Percy coughs. Linda winces.

“Ji-Min, we talked about this, remember? It’s safest, and it’s not for long. You’ll see me before you know it, and –” Ji-Min’s face is crumpling.

“I _won’t!”_ she screams, and grabs her mother’s leg, stomping one foot. “I won’t, I won’t, I won’t, I’m not going and you can’t make me, if you make me go I’ll hate you forever and run away and come back and –”

“Oh, honey,” Linda says, smoothing her hands over her daughter’s hair again. “Listen, it’s okay, it’s…” Ji-Min shakes her head, howling incoherently as she buries her face in Linda’s jeans. Percy glances sideways at Annabeth for some hint as to what to do, and gets a panicked shrug back. Linda has one hand on her daughter’s hair and the other covering her eyes.

Nico kneels on the doorstep and settles his hands over Ji-Min’s, easing her back. “Hey,” he says, soft. “Hey, Ji-Min, look at me, okay?” Ji-Min, still wailing like a fire engine, releases her hold on Linda just long enough to turn around and grab two fistfuls of Nico’s shirt instead. He rocks back on his heels and rubs her back, waiting.

Percy looks at Annabeth again. She shrugs, doing something small with her hands that manages to get the same idea across as spreading them open in front of her. _Who knows?_

Finally Ji-Min winds down to sniffling, and Nico tilts her head back. “Hey,” he says, so quietly Percy can barely hear it. “It won’t be as bad as you think.”

Ji-Min sniffles. “Are you gonna be there?”

Nico freezes.

Linda opens her mouth and closes it.

Percy blinks.

“Nico’s always welcome at camp,” Annabeth says, slowly, like she’s sounding the thought out. Her head is tilted to the side.

Nico stares at her.

“Sweetheart,” Linda says slowly, “Nico was very kind to stay with us, but he’s got things to do…”

Nico’s mouth twists, and he looks away from all of them, staring at the ground. “I don’t, really,” he says, and sighs. “You know what, I can, sure. I can come.” He glances up. “Unless Percy and Annabeth aren’t okay with that.”

“Uh, sure, dude,” Percy says. “There’s plenty of room. Or – hey, couldn’t you just shadow-travel?”

“Not a good idea,” Nico says, standing up. He takes Ji-Min’s hand. “Not with a kid. It looks like you’ll be stuck with me.”

“Well.” Percy shifts his weight from foot to foot. “Welcome aboard, I guess.”

“Makes me miss the _Argo II,_ ” Annabeth mutters. Linda frowns. “Uh, long story.”

“I won’t ask,” Linda says, shaking her head.

Of course after that there’s a whole new circus with the car seat, which has more straps than most armor that Percy’s seen, and Nico has to duck back into the house and grab his stuff, which at least is packed already, and making everyone’s bags fit into the trunk, which is way harder than it should be, and finally everything is set up and it’s all four of them standing in the driveway again.

“Come here, love,” Linda says, reaching for Ji-Min, and kneels down to hug her close. She whispers something that Percy doesn’t catch, eyes squeezed tight, and for a long moment he and Annabeth and Nico just stand and watch, a silent semicircle around the frozen mother and daughter as they say good-bye to each other.

“I’ll talk to you soon,” Linda says at last, standing up like an old, old woman. Her eyes are wet. “Have fun, kid. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mom,” Ji-Min says, and picks up her little bag of car amusements. Nico holds the back door of the car open for her, almost like a chauffeur, and helps buckle her in.

“All right,” Percy says, sliding into the driver’s seat. “Annabeth, can you get the GPS working?”

“It’s _not_ that hard,” she says, jabbing at the panel in the dashboard. Percy sighs. “There, done already. Let me –” She reaches for the radio.

“Just not country,” Percy warns, and then they’re off.

 

They don’t even make it out of the city limits before Ji-Min starts kicking her feet against the back of Percy’s seat. _Thump, thump-thump, thump thump thump._

“Uh,” Percy says. “Stop kicking my seat, please.”

“Sorry.” Ji-Min’s feet go still.

Five miles later the soft thumps start up again.

Percy grits his teeth.

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

He looks at Annabeth, wincing.

Ji-Min kicks him again. Annabeth nods, mouth twisting sympathetically. There is, sadly, no sign of the face she makes when she’s planning something genius to make almost-definitely-ADHD small children sit still for ten hours, but she does twist around. “Hey, Nico? Could you – Nico!”

“Gnuh?” There’s the noise of a startled head bumping into glass. “Uh, what? Sorry.”

“He went back to sleep,” Ji-Min says. It’s very hushed.

“I’m fine,” Nico says. “Sorry. Uh.” Percy glances at the rearview mirror and finds him rubbing his eyes. “Uh. What’s the matter?”

“I think Ji-Min’s getting bored,” Annabeth says.

“ _Really_ bored,” Ji-Min chimes in.

“Uh.” Nico’s still rubbing his face. “Um. What’ve you got in the bag?”

Some complicated game involving dots and squares, and an awful lot of cheating by Ji-Min, keeps Percy’s back mercifully unpummeled for at least another city. Percy’s pretty sure she thinks she’s outsmarting Nico, and very sure Nico’s very carefully letting her hang on to that impression. Eventually, sliding past the curves of the highway, Ji-Min starts drawing, and in a pause when the radio cuts out Percy catches the sound of a soft, easy snore from behind him.

By eleven it is the general consensus that it’s time for lunch and a general stretching of legs, and Percy’s back maybe recovering from this steady pummeling. There’s a triangle of fast-food restaurants around a patch of smooth-mown ornamental green, and Percy looks at it and says “You know what? Let’s get takeout.”

Loaded down with cheeseburgers and fries, the four of them stretch out. Ji-Min wolfs her food, industriously balancing as much ketchup as possible on each individual fry, and she’s done while everyone else is just slowing down enough for the cheese to get cold.

“Hey,” Nico says. “Bet you can’t run two full laps of the grass in less than a minute. Count it.”

“Yes I can,” Ji-Min says, and she’s off, scattering empty cardboard containers as she goes. Nico leans back on the grass and closes his eyes, hands laced behind his head.

“Clever,” Annabeth says, licking salt from her long fingers. Percy watches the slide of her tongue and briefly considers whether they can get separate hotel rooms tonight, but that’s not exactly responsible and also not fair to Nico. He contents himself with running two fingers over her tanned ankle and taking another bite of cheeseburger while Nico shrugs, head tilted back to the sun.

“It’s what Linda does,” he says. The light makes his skin look skim-milk thin. His eyelids are practically blue. “Bianca used to do something like it to me, too.”

“Huh.”

Sooner than should be possible, Ji-Min skids to a stop in front of them, panting. “Can so!” she announces.

“Awesome, dude,” Percy says, holding up a hand for a high-five that Ji-Min triumphantly provides. Annabeth, attempting to hold together the slowly-disintegrating last five bites of her burger, only nods, but Ji-Min nods back and flops down on the grass beside them again.

“Nico,” she says, “can you do the squirrel thing?”

“The what?” Annabeth asks.

“The squirrel thing!” Ji-Min says, and tugs at the hood of Nico’s sweatshirt. “Can you?”

“Hang on, hang on.” He spreads his hands out against the grass and seems to listen, for a moment. “Sure. There’s… actually, it’s a field mouse, but sure. Remember, this one won’t be cleaned off, so you can’t touch it.”

“Uh, what exactly are you doing to a field mouse?” Percy asks. Ji-Min shushes him indignantly, and Nico sits up and spreads his hand over the slowly trembling ground. A few tufts of grass spill sideways, and out clambers a tiny skeleton, mud clinging to the bones. “Uh…”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” Nico says absently, and flicks his hands. The field mouse skeleton does a little bow, first to Ji-Min, then to Percy and to Annabeth, then runs in a little circle, chasing its clattering skeletal tail. Ji-Min beams, bracing her chin on her hands to watch it.

“We’re in front of a McDonald’s,” Percy says. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“People see a marionette,” Nico says, hands still moving. “Or a toy, maybe, sometimes. I’m not really sure, but people either ignore me or tip me, so I’m not really worried.”

“Huh.” The mouse does somersaults across the grass. Annabeth leans in, watching, as Nico’s fingers turn over and over with each little skeletal tumble.

“Do you have to move your hands like that?” she asks. “I mean, is it actually a puppet?”

“No,” Nico says, as the mouse keeps dancing. “It just makes it easier to think about, is all. I wouldn’t know what to do with an actual marionette.” He pauses. “I don’t know how it does that without sinews, either.”

“I’m not sure it could do that if it had sinews, frankly,” Annabeth says, tilting her head.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen many mice doing handstands,” Percy says. The mouse does another one not far from his knee, and he pokes at it with a fry. It tilts its skull at him suspiciously, then grabs the fry between its teeth and scurries off over the lawn to bury it. Ji-Min giggles, and Nico smiles quietly, ducking his head down.

“You seem pretty different,” Percy notes, before he can stop himself, and the smile drops off of his mouth. He shrugs stiff shoulders.

“It’s been five years,” he says, watching the highway. “And we’re not at war. That’s all.” He raises his hand, and the mouse starts dancing again. Percy eats another fry and winces at the taste of cold grease.

They’re back on the road not long after that. Ji-Min runs her Happy Meal toy up and down the backseat, making whirring noises, and two exits later Annabeth rummages around in the bag at her feet and digs out –

“There are knitting needles in the emergency quest duffel?” Percy asks, distracted from his annoyance with the blue SUV ahead of them. Annabeth shrugs.

“When we’re taking the emergency quest duffel on a twenty-eight-hour car trip, there are,” she says, and frowns at her work. “Okay, another two inches of ribbing, and –”

“What’s knitting?” Ji-Min asks, leaning forward. Annabeth stops, lowering her project to her lap.

“It’s – you make things out of yarn,” she says. “You use two needles to loop the yarn around itself and make fabric, and give it shape, and – would you like me to show you?”

“Did you bring any extra needles?” Percy asks. “It would give her something to do.”

“What kinds of things can you make?” Ji-Min wants to know.

“Hats,” Nico says. “Sweaters, mittens, scarves – that kind of thing.” Percy blinks.

“What, do you knit?”

“Me? Gods, no.” When Percy glances at the rearview mirror he sees Nico leaning forward, trying to get a look at what Annabeth is doing. “Hazel says Reyna does, though.”

“ _Reyna?_ ” Percy blinks. “Wow. Okay, I did not expect that.”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Annabeth says slowly, needles flying again. “It’s good for relaxing.”

“How can you teach me to do it if you’re up there?” Ji-Min asks.

“Percy will pull over and Nico and I will switch places, obviously.” She cranes back. “Do you want to learn, then?”

“Yeah! I want to make a sweater for Billy.”

“Billy?”

“Her stuffed dog,” Nico says. “Uh, that’s probably not going to be easy, Ji-Min.”

“Well, we’ll start off knitting a square and see where we get,” Annabeth says. “Percy, when can you pull over?”

“Uh, right here should work, actually,” Percy says, eyeing the empty breakdown lane. “ _Do_ you have extra needles?”

“Yes, actually. I’m almost done with this except for the sewing, and I wanted to be able to start something else if I wanted.” She shrugs, rummaging in the bag. “Like I said. It’s a long trip."

He pulls over, and less than a minute later Annabeth is in the backseat talking carefully about loops, and Nico is sprawled out next to Percy, staring at the road ahead. Percy glances at him, since the highway is long and straight and empty, and then looks back.

“You can mess with the radio if you want, dude,” he says, waving one hand at the dials.

“As long as it’s not so loud we can’t here each other back here,” Annabeth says, breaking off mid-explanation of whatever mysterious movement of needles makes fabric happen. Percy kind of ascribed the whole thing to magic after one misshapen mushroom that was meant to be a hat. Nico shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I mostly like quieter stuff,” he informs the dashboard. “I’m not… really good at finding it on the radio, I always end up with really loud rap or weather reports.”

“Ugh,” Percy says, shaking his head. “Yeah, I’ve got no idea what’s good for radio stations out here either. You’ll probably end up tripping over NPR a lot if you try.”

“Yeah.” Nico resettles his arms over his chest and shifts sideways, staring out the window. Percy holds back a sigh and lets the speedometer inch up a little bit.

By sundown the knitting lesson is over, and every member of the car is fidgeting – Percy can feel the floor shaking, although he’s not sure who’s bouncing their leg – and when they pass an exit sign that promises a hotel, he says “Hey, time to call it a night?”

“Probably a good idea,” Annabeth says, through a yawn. Nico makes a soft, wordless noise of agreement.

The hotel, it turns out, is cheap but not totally gross, and the owlishly blinking night receptionist doesn’t sprout any tentacles or fangs no matter how Percy squints at her – which doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but he’s gotten a little better at this since the giant war.

“Looks okay,” he says. Annabeth shrugs.

“Well, we need to sleep _somewhere,_ ” she says, and approaches the desk. “Hey, one room, two queens, please, and could we get a cot for the kid?”

“You sense anything off?” Percy asks Nico, voice low. Nico hitches a half-asleep Ji-Min higher against his side and shrugs, awkward under the weight of her.

“No,” he says, “but it’s not like I can sense live monsters.”

“Right.” Percy glances at the desk again, bouncing from foot to foot. Annabeth returns, keycards in hand, and glances at Nico.

“Sorry, should I have gotten two rooms?”

“No, it’s fine,” he says, and clears his throat. “Besides, I don’t want to have to come running to another room to find you if anything attacks in the night. This is safer.” Percy frowns, but Annabeth just shrugs.

“Well, we’re that way.”

The room is no nicer than the rest of the hotel, but it’s clean and still appears to be devoid of monsters. In some ways the bleak carpet and weird semi-beige bedspreads are a relief. It’s way too blandly unappealing to be a trap. Ji-Min paces the room, carefully pulling out all the empty drawers in the desk and replacing them, before someone – probably the one person on staff besides the receptionist – shows up with the cot.

“Come on,” Nico says, once it’s positioned. “Bedtime, Ji-Min.” He tugs at her hand.

“I’m not _sleepy_ ,” she says, blinking, but she lets Nico lead her to the bed. He tucks her in, Percy notices, sword bumping against the bedframe, scrawny shoulders bent gently over her.

“What do mortals even see when they look at your sword?” Percy asks. Nico blinks, running one hand over its hilt.

“I don’t really know,” he says, frowning. “I don’t really ask.”

“I guess there’s not an easy way to, huh,” Percy says. “It’s not like you can walk up to people and say “Hey, what do you think this thing is?”’ Nico’s lips twitch.

“No,” he says, “I guess you can’t.” He glances around. “I’m going to turn in, I think, if that’s all right with you two.”

“Probably a good idea,” Percy says, glancing at Annabeth. “I mean, we might as well.”

“Yeah.” Annabeth settles down on the bed by the door, pulling off her shoes. Percy does the same, and when he looks up again, Annabeth and Nico are staring at each other. Nico is gaping.

“ _What?_ ” Annabeth demands. Nico blinks, a flush starting at his ears and rapidly overtaking the rest of his face. Percy spots the folded bra in Annabeth’s hand and starts to laugh.

“Did she do the thing where she phases her bra through her shirt?” he asks. “Not going to lie, it kind of scared me too.”

“I do _not_ – it’s easy to do once you know how,” Annabeth says, smacking him lightly on the arm.

“I, uh – I wouldn’t know,” Nico says, now as red as one of Mr. D’s shirts. “I’m just going to –” He jerks his head at the bathroom and vanishes past the door as fast as he can move without running. Percy manages not to laugh until he’s gone.

“Wait, didn’t he used to have a crush on you?” he asks, glancing at Annabeth. She rolls her eyes at him.

“I don’t think sliding my bra off is going to suddenly revitalize a five-year-old crush, Percy,” she says. “He probably didn’t feel like watching us strip down.”

“Well, I didn’t bring pajamas,” Percy says. Annabeth shrugs.

Still, they manage to be curled settled under the cover by the time Nico makes his way out of the bathroom; he hits the lights, and bedsprings creak next to them. Percy hopes he won’t snore in an actual bed; either he doesn’t, or Percy falls asleep first.

The dry, cracked cry wakes him.

He sits upright, grabbing for Riptide off the nightstand – not uncapped yet – as he searches the room for threats. Annabeth next to him, Ji-Min asleep safe, door closed, windows undisturbed, shadows empty. Nothing. Nothing.

A soft whimpering sound draws his attention to the next bed over. Nico is pale and sweating, fingers white-knuckled in the blankets, eyes fixed and blankly unseeing on the sheets in front of him.

Percy stares for a second, leaning forward to check that no, seriously, he’s not seeing anything, and then drops Riptide, twisting behind him to shake Annabeth awake.

“Annabeth!”

It jerks her out of sleep, one hand sliding under her pillow for the dagger as she throws the blankets off and blinks at him. “What’s happening?”

“Something’s up with Nico, I’m not sure what’s wrong with him. C’mon.”

Annabeth blinks, shoving the dagger back under her pillow, and scrambles for the other bed, Percy with her. “Nico!” she calls, leaning over him. “Nico, wake up.”

“ _Nico,_ ” Percy tries, leaning his hands on the mattress, and Nico jerks, blinking. When he lifts his head, his eyes are less blank.

“Hazel?” he rasps.

“It’s Annabeth and Percy,” she says carefully, stepping back to let him breathe. “You’re safe. It’s only us. You’re in a motel in Ohio. You were dreaming. It’s all right. You’re safe.” Her words are slow, almost singsong, and Percy can see Nico focusing better on her face. He nods, hunching his shoulders as he slides upright.

“Right.” He clears his throat. “Sorry. I’m fine.”

“Tartarus?” Percy asks, dropping onto the edge of the mattress. “And dude, don’t apologize. Nothing wrong.”

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Nico says, eyes on the blankets. He shoves his hair out of his eyes; Percy shrugs.

“Not an issue,” he says. “So, Tartarus, right?”

Nico shrugs, still not looking at him. “Does it matter?”

“Why wouldn’t it?” Annabeth asks, still slow and cautious, sliding to her knees on the carpet. She settles her arms on the edge of the bed, watching Nico carefully. He doesn’t answer, doesn’t look, just shakes his head.

“Yeah,” he says finally. “It was Tartarus. It’s not a big deal.”

“Sucks, though,” Percy says, trying to keep his voice light. “I mean, it _definitely_ isn’t how I like to start the day.”

Finally, Nico actually looks at him. “You get them too?”

“Of course we do,” Annabeth says. “Why wouldn’t we?”

Nico shrugs, picking at the blankets. His shoulders twitch, jump; he exhales slowly.

“Want a hug?” Percy offers, spreading his arms a little bit. “It usually helps.”

“I – what?” Nico shakes his head, shakes his whole body with it, really. “I don’t like… touch, really. Uh. Thank you.”

“No problem,” Percy says, dropping his arms back to his sides. He glances at Annabeth. She shrugs one shoulder, corner of her mouth twisting up. There’s actual sweat at Nico’s hairline, it looks like, clammy-cold beads on his forehead. Or maybe his hair was just wet from the shower, Percy remembers, but either way he’s still as pale as the sheets and he looks too hollow. “Anything else I can do, dude?”

“No, probably not.” Nico scrubs his palms over his face. “I’m fine, really. It’s okay. Sorry.”

“If you say so, I guess,” Percy says slowly. Annabeth is frowning, but then, he is too, and she doesn’t say anything. “You can stop apologizing any time now, you know. Like, oh, sorry you – what even _are_ you apologizing for, hell.”

“Fairly literally, I suppose,” Annabeth says. Nico blinks at her once, twice, and a soft huff of laughter escapes him before he looks away.

“Anyway,” he says. “I’m fine. Really. Go back to sleep.”

Percy hesitates, but Nico reaches for the covers and pauses, glaring at him. He sighs. “Okay, Nico. Uh, sleep well.” He stands, stretching; Nico tugs the blankets up around his head, still eyeing Percy. He looks a little bit like an angry gopher; Percy has to stifle a laugh, although Nico still looks way too pale. He rolls away from them, tugging the blankets up around his head as Annabeth stands.

“So… he’s not okay,” Percy mumbles, as the two of them crawl into bed. Annabeth sighs.

“He has Hazel, usually,” she says, burying her face in Percy’s collarbone. “That’s something, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Percy says, as quietly as he can. The beds are pretty close together, but on the other hand Nico has the blankets practically pulled over his head. “I feel bad, though.”

“Nothing we can do for him right now,” she says, and pulls the blankets up around them too. Even quieter, she adds, “But I get it.”

This time Percy does hear Nico start snoring before he falls asleep.

**iv. Nico**

As they wind their way up Half-Blood Hill, Nico keeps waiting to feel the barriers brush against his skin. There’s nothing but vinyl (well, and his clothes), but still. It’s a magical barrier encompassing several miles of Long Island. It should be noticeable, passing through. Instead they just curve past the pine and the Parthenos – which, granted, is a lot to curve past – and pull up outside the Big House, the magic fairly silent around them.

“Is that a _dragon?_ ” Ji-Min asks, pressing her face to the window.

“Oh.” Nico frowns. “Right. Yeah, that… that’s a dragon.”

“He’s pretty friendly to campers,” Annabeth says, patting the car on the dashboard as she undoes her seatbelt. “He likes apples, if you want to feed him.”

“We can _feed him?_ ”

“Sure you can feed him,” Percy says, stretching as he climbs out of the passenger side. His T-shirt rides up a bit, exposing a thin stripe of skin. “Just don’t try and throw the apples or anything, he can’t leave the fleece and he’ll look really sad at you until you go pick them up and hand them to him.”

“Okay,” Ji-Min promises, slithering out of her car seat; Nico catches her by the elbow before she can go haring off up the hill.

“Um, let’s get your stuff in your cabin first, okay?” he says. He looks to Annabeth. “Is the cabin safe?”

“It is,” she says. “Jason and I got permission to make it a little more livable, before he moved up to the Big House. It should be pretty comfortable.”

“Jason’s living in the Big House?” Nico asks. “She’s not going to be alone in the cabin, is she?”

Percy and Annabeth look at each other, cringing.

“We’ll all be close,” Annabeth says at last. “We didn’t get a chance to work this out before, but I’ll ask Leo if he can set us up with walkie-talkies or something, so she can call us at night. It’s not like any of us will be far.”

Ji-Min tugs at Nico’s arm. “I don’t wake up at night,” she says, shoulders stiff. “I’ll be okay. I’m not _little._ ” She sticks her chin out, looking up at him, and Nico smiles.

“I know,” he says, settling his hand at the small of her back. “But it’s important that you’re safe.”

“Yeah,” Percy says. “Plus, you don’t have to be little to need people sometimes. Everyone gets bad dreams, no matter how old you are.” When Nico looks up, Percy is definitely looking at him. He stares back. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Percy says.

“And it’s especially common for demigods,” Annabeth says, popping the trunk. “Sometimes what we dream is real, or might be real, so if you dream something particularly clear, you should tell us about it. It could be important.”

“It isn’t always, though,” Percy says, turning to Ji-Min finally. “Sometimes it’s just a dream. So don’t worry too much, all right?”

“I won’t,” she says, nodding. Nico smiles at her.

“Come on, let’s get your stuff,” he says.

“I can carry my bag,” she says immediately, scooping up the little bundle of toys. Nico turns to grab her stuff from the trunk only to find Percy and Annabeth already laden down with the bags and watching him. He coughs.

“Uh, I can take some of that…”

“We got it,” Percy says, nodding vaguely down the hill. “Are we going, or…”

The walk down the hill is surprisingly quiet. Ji-Min grabs Nico’s hand as they pass the arena, which is an advantage to not having his hands full of bags, at least. Although that means one of them is carrying _his_ bag, too, and damn, he really should’ve insisted on taking it. It’s probably too late now.

Cabin One is pretty comfortable-looking, now – the statue of Zeus is outside, which Nico remembers it wasn’t, and the inside has bunk beds and a couple of beanbag chairs. Ji-Min inspects every bed, poking at them, before she drops her bag on the one just inside the door.

“Can I have this one?” she asks.

“Sure,” Percy says, dropping the bags onto her bunk. Annabeth pauses, tugging the duffel off her shoulder.

“Nico, is this one yours?” she asks, holding it out. “We can drop it in Cabin Thirteen – I hope it’s comfortable.”

“Ah, thanks.” He takes the bag carefully – it is his bag, in fact, and significantly more beat-up than Ji-Min’s.

“Can I come?” Ji-Min asks, slipping up behind him.

“Of course,” Percy says, before Nico can. “We’ll show you around. This is Cabin One, that you’re in, that’s for children of Zeus –”

“Are we completely sure that she’s a Zeus child?” Annabeth asks.

“Linda said she is,” Nico says. “I don’t think she’d get it wrong.”

“She’ll probably get claimed at the campfire,” Percy says. “C’mon, we don’t need to bounce her between cabins.”

“Hm.” Annabeth bites her lip. “Well, I’ll ask Chiron –”

With a soft _pop_ , a bolt of lightning orbits over Ji-Min’s head.

“Well, I guess that settles it,” Percy says, sighing. “Hey, come on, tour time.”

Ji-Min nods and grabs Nico’s hand again, looking between the three of them. Nico very carefully does not sigh, just holds the door open and nods to Annabeth and Percy.

“Cabin two,” Percy says, nodding, “that’s Hera, uh, just, be really polite and try to avoid her, nobody lives there, cabin three used to be mine but now it’s empty again –”

“Percyyyy!” someone bleats. There’s a thunder of hooves, and suddenly a satyr in a rasta cap is skidding to a halt in front of them, _way_ too close and honest-to-gods trailing dust, grabbing Percy up in a hug. Percy just laughs and hugs him back, so Nico relaxes his grip on the hilt of his sword and steps back. Ji-Min taps his arm.

“Who is this?” she whispers.

“A friend of Percy’s,” Nico whispers back, trying to remember. There’s something familiar about the face, the scruffy beard and the hat, but –

“Grover, old man!” Percy laughs, thumping his back. “I thought you were in Canada. I’ve been doing your job for you, dude.”

“Yeah, I know – hi, Annabeth!” Grover hugs her too, half-lifting her; she laughs, squeezing him around the shoulders. “Oh, hey, Nico – and you’re Ji-Min, right,” he says, letting Annabeth go to wave. Ji-Min bites her lip and stares at him.

“You look really weird,” she says.

“I look normal for satyrs,” Grover says, tugging his cap more firmly on his head. “Look, I’m sorry – you guys, I actually need your help with something up at the arena, kind of now would be good. Can you?”

“Sure, dude,” Percy says, and stops, looking at Nico. “Unless…”

“We’ll meet up with you again later,” Annabeth says. “You guys can wait here, or –”

“We’ll be fine,” Ji-Min says, squeezing Nico’s hand. He blinks down at her.

“If you say so,” Percy says, smiling. There’s a yell from up the hill, and Grover cringes. “Crap, I’m guessing that’s your problem?”

“Yup!” Grover’s already trotting towards the sound, and Percy and Annabeth shrug and follow, moving not quite in sync but easily together as the three of them vanish up the hill. Annabeth’s hair bounces; Percy curls Riptide in his split-knuckled hand.

“I haven’t been here in years, Ji-Min,” Nico says, into the quiet once they’re gone. She shrugs.

“We’ll be okay anyway,” she says. “We can explore. I bet I know what number all the cabins are.”

“Well, it’s written on them,” Nico points out, looking up and down the rows. Cabin Thirteen is marked in bones and gemstones. Ji-Min sighs up at him.

“That’s the _point,_ ” she says, and tugs at his shirt. “Show me yours.”

“It’s not mine,” he protests. “I mean, I haven’t stayed here since before it was built.”

“Oh.” She frowns. “So you’re going to be staying somewhere totally new all summer?”

“I am,” he says, and shrugs, looking down the hill again. Smoke is rising out the chimney of one of the other new cabins, one he can’t identify; someone is climbing on the Hermes cabin roof. “I should grab my bag, I guess.”

“I’ll get it!” She pats his hand and darts back into the cabin. Nico blinks after her, but she bustles importantly back, bag clutched tightly to her chest. “Here.”

“Thank you.” He reaches out to take it, but she pulls back, shaking her head.

“No, I’ll carry it.”

“You don’t have to do that!” He grabs for it again, but she takes another step back, and Nico stops before this turns into a game of keep-away. “You don’t have to, c’mon. It’s heavy.”

“Not that heavy,” she says, sticking her lip out. The bag is almost as big as her. “And you’re staying in a new place all summer cause of me, so I’ll carry your bag down for you.”

“That’s not –” he starts, and sighs. “It isn’t really new, Ji-Min. I just haven’t been here in a while, that’s all.”

She eyes him, unimpressed. “But your _cabin’s_ new.”

“But the camp isn’t.” He scrubs his hand through his hair. “Uh, thank you for carrying my bag, I guess.”

She nods, re-adjusting her grip on the bag. This is not how duffels are meant to be carried, but he’s pretty sure it would drag if she tried to carry it properly. It doesn’t look too far to Cabin Thirteen, but Nico holds off on the useful details about the other cabins anyway. She’s never going to give the bag back to him, and he doesn’t have that much, but it’s definitely too heavy for her.

There are skeletons with ruby eyes carved into the doorframe of Cabin Thirteen, one on each side. The doorknob isn’t carved like anything in particular, but it’s got abstract patterns etched into it, and another ruby at the center. Nico’s not sure whether the stones are real or not, but the door doesn’t stick as he opens it, at least. “Just put the bag down anywhere,” he tells Ji-Min, because she’s staggering a little, and she obeys, dropping it on… warm grey carpeting.

The cabin is mostly done in dark colors – black chairs, grey carpet, paler grey walls – but there’s a silver bowl of brightly-colored stones on a table, and windows with diamond-paned glass sending light slanting through onto the ground. The bunks are clustered at the back, each one with a chest of drawers at the base, and the light pools warm and bright on them, adding luster to the dusty sheets.

“It’s nice in here,” Ji-Min says, surveying the room. Nico nods.

“Yeah,” he says. “It is.”

“Good.” She settles her hands on her hips. “It should be.” He smiles, watching the bounce of her pigtails as she gives it an approving nod. “Can we go look at the rest of it now?”

“Yeah, of course,” he says, stretching his arms out again. His shoulders pop. “I guess we can just go in a circle, maybe. We’ll get a good look at everything eventually.”

Nobody looks at them for too long as they circle the cabins. People glance at them, then look away; it could be that Nico’s just that freaky-looking, or maybe they’re too far off for anyone to notice that they’re new around here. It doesn’t really matter, because Ji-Min skitters so close to Nico that it’s all he can do not to trip over her every time that they get within fifty feet of another camper. The mess is empty, and Nico keeps a firm hold on her hand as she tries to investigate the brazier; she takes one look at the climbing wall and says, “Do I _have_ to climb that?”

“I don’t think so,” he says, watching. Someone with bright purple hair is clinging to the top as the wall shakes. “Nobody ever made me climb it, anyway, and I was a lot bigger than you.”

“Good.” She stares at it, biting her lip. “I could, maybe. When I’m a little bigger.” Nico tries to say something and finds his throat too tight, watching the way she holds herself a little straighter and stares at the wall. She doesn’t even come up to his waist.

“Yeah,” he says, finally. “I bet you could.”

They move on, after that: skirting the amphitheater, dodging the eager noise of the arts and crafts cabin too, heading up towards the boundary. “Are those the Roman Passage?” she asks, pointing at the pillars leading into nowhere, with the stretch of half-distinct air in between them.

“Yeah,” he says, stopping to watch. It’s a little dizzying, looking at the space where two tall pillars open into California, but he does anyway. There’s a squirrel eating nuts just in the border of New Rome. “They are.”

“The ones your sister made out of the labyrinth,” she says, and tugs at him. “Isn’t that right?”

“It is, yeah,” he says, still watching the gap. Tiny figures march and circle at the Roman camp, made blurred by the passage. It’s a little nauseating, the way they move. He looks away, and finds Ji-Min focusing on the rest of the hill, lips pursed.

“And that’s the Athena Parthos?” she asks, pointing at the statue. It’s bigger than he remembers, taller; the sunlight splinters off of it like polished armor.

“Par-then-os,” he says, very carefully. “Yes. The one Reyna brought back, after Annabeth found it.”

“Annabeth found it?” She wrinkles her nose. “You never told me _that._ ” She pauses. “It doesn’t look very hard to find.”

“It was hidden underground,” he says, looking at it again. It’s brighter, too, than it was when he was hauling it across Europe; perhaps a shadow-travel thing, perhaps just that it looks better now that it’s set up and safe. “It was lost for a very long time.”

“Nico?” Ji-Min asks. When he looks down, she’s studying _him,_ now, all wrinkled nose and drawn-in eyebrows. “Do you not like Annabeth and Percy? Do you hate them?”

“I – what?”

“Do you hate Percy and Annabeth?” Ji-Min repeats, slightly more slowly. She folds her arms and stares at him, chin stuck out, and Nico holds back a groan.

“No, I don’t – why do you think I would hate them?” Nico asks, frantically trying to remember what he has and hasn’t said. Nothing comes up, no bitter tidbits, nothing unfair and jealous about Annabeth, no –

“You never told me anything about them,” Ji-Min says. “You told me all the stories about Hazel and Frank and Reyna and Jason and Piper and Bianca and Leo and Hestia and Chiron, and you never told me when Percy and Annabeth were there for it. And you don’t talk to them at all either. You don’t talk very much,” she says, “but you talked more to Mom and me.”

“I –” Nico stops and sighs, dropping to a seat on the grass. It’s soft, at least. Ji-Min follows him immediately, propping her chin on her hands to keep staring at him. “I don’t hate them, Ji-Min. I never did. Well –” He stops, plucking a piece of clover from the hill to twirl between his fingers. “I kind of did, or I thought I did, but I didn’t really. I was angry at Percy for a lot of things that weren’t really his fault, but I was mad at him because it was easier. And I was jealous of Annabeth, for a lot of reasons that weren’t really fair. But that was a long time ago, and I don’t really feel like that anymore.”

“Huh.” Ji-Min chews this over, tilting her head. “Really?”

“Yeah.” It’s mostly true, too. Percy’s still too lanky, and his hair still curls up under his ears, and he still has a wry, infectious grin, and Nico still notices, but… there’s no pain to it, anymore, not really. Something kind of like the aftertaste of how it used to be, that’s all; just a memory of how his chest hurt and the world swayed under his feet. And watching him with Annabeth is only a little wistful, not a punch to the stomach or a salty-tasting unjust fury in his mouth. He just has a type, now, not a crush.

“So why didn’t you ever talk about them?” Ji-Min asks, and Nico sighs, chucking the clover down the hill.

“I don’t know, Ji-Min. It’s complicated, I guess.” She continues to stare at him, looking severely unimpressed, and he sighs, tugging up another plant. The roots come with it. “I guess it’s still kind of messy. I’m not angry anymore, but I don’t think they like me much, and… I feel bad about how angry I was. A lot of stuff that happened wasn’t a lot of fun, really, and I don’t like thinking about it. So I didn’t talk about them much, I guess. But it’s not anything big.”

“Oh.” She tilts her head, contemplating him, and finally nods. Apparently he passes her honesty checks. “Are things always this complicated for half-bloods?”

He laughs, scrubbing his hand over his face. “I don’t know. I’m just me.” He hesitates, watching the ground. “Sometimes I think it’s complicated for everybody. Not just half-bloods, but everyone.”

“That’s stupid,” Ji-Min says, and flops back on the grass. “That’s really stupid.”

He shrugs. “Well, maybe you’ll fix it. You’re smarter than me.”

She rolls over, squinting at him. “No, I’m not.”

“Sure you are,” he says, and yawns, somewhat to his own surprise. He rubs his eyes. “And you build great train tracks.” She scoffs, quietly, and leans back, staring up at the sky. Clouds eddy above them, and Nico shivers, closing his eyes against the endless, overwhelming blue.

“You said Jason can fly,” Ji-Min says. “Am I going to learn to fly?”

“I don’t know,” he says, running his hands over the grass. It’s cool against his palm, and prickles gently. “Jason’s a son of Jupiter, not Zeus. His sister is a daughter of Zeus, like you, and I don’t think she flies. I’m not sure. But you might. It’s not always the same for everyone, even from the same camp.”

“Most of the Aphrodite people can’t do what Piper does, right?” she says, and pauses. “Aphrodite. Ap-fro-dite?”

“You got it the first time,” he says, spreading his hands out against the ground. There are bones somewhere underneath, but they feel – comfortable, somehow. Settled. Maybe someone very old, someone who lived a good life. Maybe just someone who died a long, long time ago, who’s almost a part of the hillside now.

“I want to fly,” she says, and when he looks at her, she’s staring up into the clouds, biting at her lip. “Do you think if I try really hard to learn I can?”

“I don’t know, Ji-Min,” he says, and stops, looking up at the wisps of clouds. “But maybe if it feels so important, maybe that’s a sign that you can, that you’re going to learn how when your powers really come.”

“I hope so.” She rolls over onto her stomach, looking at him. “How’d you figure out what you can do?”

“Uh.” Nico swallows, plucking at the grass. Stalks come away in his hands. “I summoned some skeletons by accident.”

“Oh.” She purses her lips. “Huh.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a lot of fun.” He sighs and pulls himself up, spine creaking. Which is kind of silly, but apparently it’s happening anyway. “Hey, you haven’t seen everything yet. Do you want to keep going?”

“Yeah.”

He holds a hand out to her, but she’s already climbing up on her own, stretching her arms above her head. Even with the slope of the hill helping her out, her hands don’t come up past his waist, and he resists the urge to steady her. She can stand just fine.

“Let’s go, then,” he says instead, and she leads him down the hill, through the camp. At the pegasi stables, Nico hovers at the door and gets whinnied at by displeased animals while a girl in a pink shirt introduces Ji-Min to each horse by name. The two girls keep talking until it’s time for dinner.

Ji-Min’s first few days at camp pass quickly, after that. She catches him after breakfast and tells him where she’ll be – dagger lessons, the arts and crafts tent, a slice of time when she can climb just a _little_ of the climbing wall without earthquakes or lava simulated underneath her – and catches him late in the afternoon to sit outside the Zeus cabin or up on Half-Blood Hill and tell him about monster tactics, canoeing, nymphs who offered to teach her to dance. At dinner, she sits across from a fat stuffed cow and eats happily enough; Percy and Annabeth tend to stop to talk to her on the way to the high table. The Hades table is crowded in the edge of the pavilion with the others, an ornate thirteen carved on its surface, but Nico prefers to load up a plate and slip away, or some nights just not go. When he’s not talking with Ji-Min, he walks the beach and the edges of the forest, or curls up in his cabin, stretched out on his claimed bunk and watching the sunlight fall across the thick rich carpet. It’s all right. Better than time spent in the Underworld, for certain.

“Nico?” she asks, the fourth day, squinting at clovers that steadily refuse to be threaded into chains. She keeps trying anyway. “I want to go to the campfire but there’s too many people.”

Nico blinks at her. “Uh, okay?” The grass of the hill is warm underneath him, and his eyes are heavy and his limbs too cold the way they always are after a bad night. His throat still hurts a little, too, and Ji-Min is looking at him like she’s waiting for something. “I think there’s just going to be more people as the summer goes on.”

“Will you come with me?” she asks, dropping the clovers. “Please.”

“That’ll only make there be more people,” he points out, around a yawn. The look she gives him is deeply unimpressed.

“But I _know_ you,” she says. “Please?”

He sighs, looking away, at the long slope of the hill down to the camp, the little distant figures bouncing around the volleyball courts. Ji-Min tugs at his arm. “Ni-cooo,” she says, and when he looks at her, her hands are clenched tight on her knees. Her lips are pressed tight.

“Okay,” he says, and picks up her clovers. They’re kind of a mess, by this point.

A few hours later, she knocks on the door of the Hades cabin, and he sighs, pulling himself out of his nice comfortable curl of bedcovers. “Coming,” he calls, rubbing his eyes – he was sleeping way too deeply for a nap – and pulls his jacket on. When he opens the door, Ji-Min is bouncing on her toes.

“We’ll be late!” she says, grabbing his hand, and pulls him towards the amphitheater, where smoke is just starting to curl up against the darkening sky.

The risers are already crowded. Leo is in the middle of the Hephaestus cabin, talking to a tall guy with long glossy hair; the Demeter kids are clustered around a picnic basket overflowing with fruit. Ji-Min tugs Nico a little closer to her, looking across the circle.

“Where…” Nico rasps, and coughs, clearing his throat. The nap was maybe a bad plan. “Where do you want to sit?”

“I don’t know.” She looks over the risers, up and down. “Do you know anybody?”

“Not really.” He pauses, looking at Leo again, but the Hephaestus cabin is heavily-populated and most of them are older. And, themselves, kind of enormous. Ji-Min could practically get crushed. The Aphrodite kids are drawn in on themselves, most of the kids from the smaller cabins seem to have spread out among the central twelve, and –

“Can we sit with them?” she asks, pointing somewhere else, across the circle.

“Sure!” he says, and then looks where she’s pointing, and realizes it’s Percy and Annabeth curled together, out on the right. Ji-Min’s already tugging him on, though, quick with purpose now that there’s a solution.

“Hey!” Percy waves, pushing his jacket aside to make room on the bench next to him. “Hi, guys. Good to see you.”

“I haven’t seen you anywhere,” Annabeth says, looking at Nico. She tilts her head, eyebrows raised; he shrugs.

“I’ve been staying out of the way,” he says. Percy frowns at him.

“Whose way, dude? It’s not like there’s some kind of huge project going on. Hey, need a hand?” The last is directed at Ji-Min, who’s eyeing the high bench with some concern. She shakes her head, scrabbling up on her own; Percy’s hands hover next to her, ready to catch her. Nico did the same thing for the first month at Linda’s house.

“Have a seat,” Annabeth says, waving a hand. Nico sits gingerly, Ji-Min between him and the other two, and finds Percy still looking at him expectantly.

“Children of Hades are usually unsettling,” he says, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “I didn’t want to…”

“So are children of Poseidon, and Hecate,” Annabeth says, rooting around under the seat. She holds out a bag of marshmallows to Ji-Min, who takes one and pops it in her mouth immediately. Nico’s mouth twitches. “A daughter of Phobos arrived last year. There’s a kid in the Hermes cabin who Chiron thinks is a grandson of Nyx.” Her lips thin, and Percy takes her hand, gentle in the dimming light. “We got used to them. You’re not any more frightening, Nico.”

“Yeah,” Percy says, glancing around. “Hey, do we have spare roasting sticks?”

“No, but there’s a pile two rows over, genius,” Annabeth says, rolling her eyes. Nico jumps up.

“I’ll get it,” he says, quick, and slips between the benches, trying to shake off the stoniness in her eyes.

“What, you don’t want s’mores?” Percy asks, when he returns with the one marshmallow stick. Nico blinks, looking down at the rod in his hand.

“I didn’t think of it, I guess,” he says. Percy shrugs.

“Whatever, we can share,” he says, nudging a backpack forward. “We’ve got chocolate and the fancy kind of graham crackers, hope that’s okay.”

“There’s a fancy kind of graham crackers?” Nico asks, handing Ji-Min her stick. Percy laughs, and he blinks.

“He means honey-cinnamon,” Annabeth says, holding out a stick. “Hopefully the singing will be good, or we’re not going to be able to get these toasted very well.”

“I’ve never really understood how that works, anyway,” Percy says, unwrapping the chocolate. “Not the singing, I mean, just – if we can cook our marshmallows back here, how do the people in front not like, fry?”

“It’s part of the spell that links it to the music,” Annabeth says. “I haven’t been able to find anyone who knows who did it except Chiron, and he won’t explain it to me, but –”

“Ji-Min, save some marshmallows to toast, okay?” Nico says, tugging the bag away from her before she can wolf down yet another. “Uh, sorry, Annabeth.”

“It’s okay,” she says, smiling crookedly. “I was just going to spend five minutes explaining that I don’t know how it works, anyway.” Percy bumps her shoulder, laughing, and she bumps him back.

“Do I _have_ to sing?” Ji-Min asks, tapping her stick against the ground. Percy grins, knocking his own against it.

“It’ll be fun, come on. Don’t worry, half of us sound horrible.” He grins; Ji-Min frowns at him, inching closer to Nico.

“But I don’t know the words.”

“It’s okay,” Nico says softly, smiling at her. “I don’t either.”

“It’s easy to learn, anyway,” Annabeth says. “They’re designed that way. There’s bits that repeat and they’re easy to pick up, and someone in the Apollo cabin keeps the rest of it going for the people that don’t know it.”

“Okay.” Ji-Min nods, slowly, and taps her roasting stick against Percy’s again. He grins and returns the strike, _clack, clack, clack._

“Uh,” Nico says, “maybe that’s not such a good idea.”

“What? Oh, yeah, you’re right.” Percy sighs, sitting back. “Sorry.”

“You’re not very grown-up for a grownup,” Ji-Min informs him, trying to hide a smile. Nico does the same.

“Yeah, well, I’m only _just_ a grownup,” Percy says, ruffling her hair. She wrinkles her nose. “Nico’s right, though. Plus we shouldn’t let you get into bad habits. In a real fight, nobody’s going to be aiming for your weapon.”

“They might be, actually,” Annabeth says. “If they’re trying to break it. They’d be aiming for a flaw in the blade, though, or maybe to break it at the hilt.”

“I’ve never run into anyone using that tactic,” Nico says, curling his hand around the hilt of his own sword just to make sure it’s still in one piece. Annabeth shrugs.

“Celestial bronze is hard to break, and Imperial gold is a little softer but still tough. Most people don’t bother trying, but sometimes a giant will.”

“I think Stygian iron is even harder,” Nico says, brushing his fingers over the sheath. “I mean, I’ve never tested it, but it feels that way.”

“That could make it brittle, though,” Annabeth says, shifting towards him. “I know that’s an issue with some steel. On the other hand, iron is something that makes a good weapon even without magic, which might give it an advantage. When you say it feels that way, is it an Underworld thing, or have you tested it –”

“I’m not sure how I would,” Nico admits, looking down at the sword. “I mean, I guess I could try it.”

“She’s been looking for a project,” Percy says, leaning his head on Annabeth’s shoulder. They’re the same height, even sitting down – both several inches taller than Nico. Percy smiles up at her, and she smiles back.

There’s a babble by the cluster of Apollo kids, and someone with beaded cornrows jumps up on a bench. “All right, hey guys!”

“It’s starting!” Ji-Min whispers, very loudly, and Percy and Annabeth and Nico all look at each other over her head and try their very hardest not to laugh.

Five songs in, Ji-Min is singing the choruses to everything, with a certain amount of “La la la!” when she feels it’s necessary. Fifteen songs in, she’s singing in between slowly constructing yet another s’more, struggling to keep her eyes open. Twenty songs in, and she’s quiet, curled up against Percy, and Nico is yawning, bracing his chin on one hand and letting himself drift away from this, from the campfire, from the happy people around him, watching the shadows dance over the stone and not thinking of anything at all.

Something taps gently against his knee.

He looks down and finds Percy rapping his kneecap with a roasting stick, marshmallow already skewered on the end. He stares at it for a moment, then looks at Percy, who’s staring at him like he’s missing something obvious.

“Uh,” Nico tries, “what?”

“Here you go,” Percy says, waving the stick at him. “You haven’t had any yet and we’re going to run out of chocolate soon.”

Nico blinks, watching the marshmallow sway gently in front of his face. “I’m fine, actually. I don’t need it.”

Percy rolls his eyes, brandishing the marshmallow. “Come on, we can’t just sit here and stuff our faces without sharing. It’s a campfire, you’ve gotta have at least one.”

“Really, I’m okay.” The smell of marshmallows and chocolate drifts past his nose, suddenly impossible to ignore. And, actually, he didn’t eat dinner. Or anything for lunch except an apple.

“Do you not like marshmallows or something?” Percy asks, frowning at him. Nico sighs, tugging the stick out of his hand.

“No, I like them,” he says, and reaches the stick tentatively towards the flames. Luckily nobody’s sitting in front of them, so he doesn’t have to worry about dropping a marshmallow in anybody’s hair. There’s sticky smudge all over Ji-Min’s face already.

“Hey, did they have marshmallows in the forties?” Percy asks, frowning at him.

“Yes,” Nico says; to his surprise, Annabeth says it at the same time. He blinks at her. “How did you know that?”

“I got curious about where food comes from when I was little,” she says, shrugging. “I think I was nine.”

“So you looked up stuff about the history of marshmallows,” Percy says with a smile, leaning back against her shoulder. She twirls her own roasting stick between her fingers, lifting her other shoulder.

“It was winter,” she says. “There wasn’t a lot to do. I got bored.”

“Makes sense,” Nico says, turning his marshmallow slowly. Percy shakes his head, hair flopping in front of his eyes.

“Why _marshmallows,_ though?”

“I don’t remember,” Annabeth admits, licking marshmallow off her fingers. She smirks at Percy, whose ears turn pink; Nico ducks his head and very, very carefully inspects the slowly browning outside of his marshmallow.

“I guess you look up whatever you’re thinking about,” he says, fixing his eyes in front of him. Annabeth makes a vague noise of agreement.

“You two are weird,” Percy says amiably. There’s a rustle of cloth, and when Nico glances over, he’s sitting up and Annabeth is sliding a new marshmallow onto her stick with no particular flourishes. Thank the gods.

“Can you pass the stuff?” he asks, waving his hand at the backpack. Percy frowns at him.

“You’ve barely even toasted that, come on!”

“What?” Nico frowns at him, looking at his marshmallow again. “It’s melting. It’s right.”

“They’re better blackened,” Annabeth says, nodding. “It’s the contrast, it makes it good.”

“I just like them melted…”

“You’re being silly,” Ji-Min says into Percy’s side, yawning. He blinks and lifts his arm, smiling down at her.

“I guess you’re right, kiddo,” he says, tousling her hair easily. “Sorry, Nico. If you like barely melted marshmallows that taste the exact same as if you didn’t bother to toast them, it’s fine.” He shoves the bag towards Nico with one foot. “Eat your heart out.”

“They don’t taste the same at all,” Nico says, rummaging around with one hand. “Percy, there’s two whole bars of chocolate left.”

“Really? Huh. I guess I must not have seen one.” Percy shrugs. “Hey, this way you can have more than one s’more, it works out.”

Nico opens his mouth around an objection, but something stops him. Percy and Annabeth are both watching him, Ji-Min asleep between them, and the smoke from the fire drifts past. He sighs and stacks his – first of the night, apparently – s’more.

It bursts into his mouth and he realizes he’s not sure he’s had one of these since he found out about Olympus.

“See, told you you’d want another one,” Percy says. Nico swallows, somewhat regretfully, and blinks at him.

“No, you didn’t.”

“What, yeah I did –”

“Both of you, shut up,” Annabeth says, smiling. “Pass those back over?”

“Yeah.” Nico picks up the backpack to hand it over; Annabeth leans over Percy to take it, and Nico has to lean in too. Her hair falls against his arm; he flinches away and brushes against Percy’s chest.

“Thanks,” Annabeth says, dropping the pack back to the ground to root around in it. “Here, lemme just…” She nudges it sideways, until it’s settled between Percy’s feet. “I think we can all reach, now.”

Uh. Okay, he’s not fourteen anymore, this doesn’t have to be a big deal and he’s not going to be weird or creepy about it. “Okay.” He does his best to kick the bag a little forwards without being obvious about it.

They sit, watching the rest of the camp sing. Nobody’s really in tune and the rhythms are ragged, but it’s kind of nice. The fire ripples, blue and pink. Nico plucks chocolate and marshmallows from the bag and cleans smears industriously from his knuckles, ducking his head to hide the motion. The firelight is warm on his face, even from the stands. It’s probably part of the same spell.

“I should probably get her to an actual bed,” he says softly, nodding at Ji-Min, when the graham crackers are only crumbs and he’s eaten almost too much for the first time in months.  She’s snuggled up against Percy’s side still, which is good. It makes sense, and it’s good that she trusts him. He’ll do his best to look after her.

“Sure,” Percy says, gently nudging her upright. “Hey, kid, it’s time to go to bed.”

“Don’t wake her, I can carry her,” Nico says, scooping her up gently. She yawns and grabs his shirtfront, clutching. Percy laughs.

“Gods of Olympus, she’s like a baby monkey,” he says. Nico shrugs, looking at the ground.

“Primates, I guess,” Annabeth says, standing to sling the backpack over her shoulder. “I’m ready to turn in too, I think. Percy?”

“Yeah,” he says, sliding one hand through hers. “Hey, Nico, it was nice to see you and Ji-Min.”

Nico frowns. “I thought you taught her swim lessons?”

“What? Yeah, I do, why?” Percy asks, blinking at him.

“I… nothing.”  Nico resettles Ji-Min on his hip.

“Same time tomorrow night?” Annabeth asks. “I can bring normal graham crackers.”

“What? Oh, no, I liked these,” Nico says, and then blinks. Percy’s already grinning.

“Awesome, see you then,” he says, clapping Nico on the shoulder. “Hey, goodnight.”

**v. Annabeth**

Annabeth walks the edge of the forest, sneakers digging into the soft loamy earth. Her footprints are sharp-edged, printed on the ground. It’s not really satisfying, but it is a little.

Mostly, it’s good to move. She’s not quite jogging – there’s not enough of a trail – but she’s walking quickly, what Camp Jupiter would probably have at slightly faster than march pace. Or maybe not, since she’s never marched with the legion, just seen them coming.

At least they managed not to have to fight that war.

She walks a little faster.

It’s warm out, even under the trees, sweat damp on her skin. It’s not unpleasant, though; it’s doing its biological job, after all. Everything working exactly as it should.

There’s a soft whistling sound up ahead, a low odd tune. It’s mournful, too, not the kind of thing the satyrs tend to play. She frowns and tilts her head, letting herself slow down so she can place her feet quietly among the leaves.

She shoves the soft-needled limbs of a white pine out of her face and finds Nico di Angelo curled between the roots of a spreading old oak, head tilted back against the trunk, one leg stretched out in front of him. His lips are pursed.

“What’s that song?” she asks him.

He stiffens, but he doesn’t jump, just sits up straighter as he turns to her. “I didn’t realize you were coming this way.”

“Yeah, well.” She shrugs, easing the rest of the way past the pine. She lets the branches go slowly enough that they won’t lash. “I wasn’t sure who was singing.”

He blinks at her. “I wasn’t singing.”

“Whistling, whichever.” She shrugs. “Some of the dryads have odd voices.”

“That sounds like whistling?” He doesn’t seem suspicious, just confused.

“Not really.” She sighs, dropping to the grass. “I wasn’t sure what I thought I was hearing.”

“Just me.” He looks away, brushing his hair out of his face. His jacket is piled up next to him, mid-June and all. “It’s – I don’t know what song it is. I just heard it somewhere.”

“Where would you have heard it?”

He twitches. “What?”

“I just –” She shakes her head, rubbing the back of her neck. “I have no idea what you’ve been doing for the past five years.”

He looks away, brushing his hands over the dirt. “I don’t either, really.”

“What, you mean you don’t remember?” She leans forward. “Nico, that’s serious, if you’re –”

“No, I’m remembering things fine,” he says, shaking his head. “No, it’s just…” He shrugs, picking at his jeans. “I haven’t really been doing anything.”

“Where do you live?”

“I’m in the Underworld a lot?” He’s playing with the edge of his T-shirt now, hands quick and jerky. “And in New Rome. Hazel lets me stay with her and Frank whenever I’m there. They’ve got their own place – praetor’s perks.”

“I know, she told me.” Annabeth reaches up to tug her hair out of its ponytail, letting it spill down her back. She spins the elastic around her fingers. “Percy and I helped them paint the kitchen.” They’d gotten covered in pale blue paint, all four of them; Frank had slipped and put his hand in the paint and had blue between his knuckles for days, and Percy had swiped his paintbrush through Annabeth’s hair only for Hazel to paint his ass in sisterly solidarity. Annabeth had laughed so hard she cried and promised Hazel a cake in gratitude.

“Oh.” Nico looks away, tugging his jacket into his lap. The sunlight flickers through the leaves, playing over his face in watery strands. “I didn’t know about that until later. I was – actually, I was in Montana.”

She raises her eyebrows. “Montana?”

“Yeah. I was out there to deal with some shades, and then… I didn’t want to go back anywhere.” He shrugs. “I got a hotel for a while and stayed there for a month or two. Uh – Bianca and I had a fund set up, and I have access to it now and stuff. So. I have money.”

“That makes sense.” Annabeth looks away over the strawberry fields, playing with the splitting ends of her hair. “What did you do?”

“What did I do in Montana?” He hunches his shoulders, bunching up his jacket in his hands. “Does it matter?”

“I’m not trying to interrogate you,” she says, pulling her knees up in front of her. “I’m just trying to talk.”

Nico shrugs, folding his jacket back and forth. “You don’t need to.”

She shrugs. “You’re a good person, Nico. You’ve helped us out. You’re a little unsettling sometimes, but I like you. I’d like to talk to you more.”

“I.” He ducks his head, hugging his jacket close to his chest. Annabeth tries to hold back her smile, watching his cheeks turn pink. “Thanks.”

“So. Montana?”

“I slept a lot,” he says, smoothing  his jacket down over his lap. He toys with the pockets, fastening and unfastening. “There was a library. I tried to look at the comic books, but there are so many – I couldn’t catch up. The basement was nice, though. Warm, comfortable. And I liked being underground.”

“Did you used to read comics?”

“Yeah. Captain America, and stuff. Even though I’m not American.” The corner of his mouth twitches. “I liked him anyway. They still make the comics, but I don’t really understand them anymore.”

“There was a movie, too,” Annabeth says, brushing her hair behind her shoulders. “I didn’t see it, but maybe it’d be easier.”

“I don’t know.” Nico shrugs. “It’s not that important. I read some other stuff, sometimes, but I got tired fast.”

“Well, you’re dyslexic,” she points out. He shrugs.

“They had some audiobooks,” he says, running his hands over the ground. “I got a thing to play them. Um, kids’ stuff, mostly. It was what they had.”

“Sounds fun.” Annabeth watches him, the way he doesn’t look at her, the way the hair falling around his face makes him look softer, less raw. Or maybe it’s him.

“There was this place I got food,” he says. “If I came in at the end of the day Brenda would give me free pie. Uh – she was the waitress, she noticed me reading the comic books and started talking to me. So.”

“Was she cute?”

Nico’s hands go still on his jacket; he bites his lip. “I, uh. I didn’t notice.”

“It’s not important,” Annabeth says, resettling herself back against another tree. “I just wondered.”

“Well. I.” He bites his lip again, looking away. His eyebrows are drawn together, fretful. “I – didn’t notice. It was a while ago.”

“It doesn’t matter. Was the pie good?”

He leans back, fiddling with his coat again. “Pretty good, I guess. Except the rhubarb.”

“Did you go to school at all?”

He laughs rustily – he has dimples. She didn’t know that. “I haven’t been in school since the vice-principal turned out to be a manticore. I just… never went back.” She tries not to scowl, but her mouth twitches anyway. He lifts one shoulder. “I probably should have.”

“You could get a GED,” she points out, and tosses an acorn out into the strawberry fields. He sighs, leaning back.

“Maybe. I don’t know. Hey…” He bites his lip, frowning at her. “Um. I kind of got the impression you’d go to college?” She sighs, dropping her forehead against her knee.

“After the Gaea war, Percy dropped out, and I… I finished high school, but I hated it. It was too strange. Kronos was one thing, but after we fought the world, after Tartarus – it felt too wrong. The mortal world.” She sighs, digging her fingernails into her jeans. “I meant to try college, maybe after a year, but – I just wanted to be somewhere safe for a while. No wars, no apocalypses, no damned monster attacks, just me. And Percy, and no kidnapping or amnesia, and actually hanging out with Piper without one of us going out of our minds with worry. So I stayed.”

“That makes sense,” he says, softly.  She shrugs, reaches back to shake her hair loose from its ponytail.

“It didn’t help that – well, I mean, I already rebuilt Olympus. I don’t really know where I go from that, I guess.”

“We saved the world twice,” Nico says, yawning. “So I get that.”

“Yeah. I wonder, sometimes, if I should’ve...” She frowns at him. “Are you tired?”

“A little bit. I’m fine.”

“Tartarus?” she asks. His lips thin. “Get one of the Stoll brothers to get you stuff to make hot chocolate. Something to do when you wake up helps.”

He opens his mouth, closes it. “What do they charge?”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “Percy and I got to leave and buy ours. Maybe you should do that too, actually, they’ll probably overcharge.”

“I don’t know what the standard cost in drachmas is for a kettle and hot chocolate,” Nico points out. Annabeth shrugs, hiding a smile.

“Camp Jupiter probably has a price in denarii, anyway. You could check.”

“Mmm.” He looks away. “Is there an exchange rate, really?”

“I don’t know. I don’t shop there.” She shrugs. “I’m never really sure… the rift is healed, but I did fly into New Rome at the head of a trireme. It’s a little uncomfortable.”

“Leo visits them,” Nico points out, tilting his head at her. “He actually did the shooting, didn’t he? You should be fine.”

“Maybe.” Annabeth sighs, glancing up at the angle of the sun. “I should probably go kick the Apollo kids out of the arts and crafts cabin, it’s our turn.”

“Okay.” Nico catches her eye and smiles, a hesitant flicker, before he looks away. “Uh, good luck.”

“Yeah. Hey, if you and Ji-Min want to be added to a rotation, you could double up with Cabin Six,” she offers, pulling herself to her feet. “There’s not that many of them, we have room.”

“We find time to get in there,” Nico says, tracing one finger over the root of the tree. “It’s all right. Thank you, though.”

“Okay.” She bites her lip, looking down at him. There’s a leaf in his hair, she notices, just at the back. His fingers are slim, spindly – just like the rest of him. Limbs, lips. “See you later?”

“Yeah, sure. Do you want me to start bringing marshmallows or anything?”

“Oh, no, it’s fine, we’ve got plenty.” She reaches back, whipping her hair back into a ponytail, and fixes her eyes on the horizon. “By the way, the strawberry-rhubarb pie is amazing at dinner.”

He might say something, but she’s already gone, feet pounding over the fields.

“Hey.” The soft voice from the darkness behind her is the first warning Annabeth gets, but she recognizes him.

“Hey, Nico,” Percy says, twisting back. “Hey, Ji-Min. You’re getting sneaky.”

She shrugs. “Practice.” The sapphire firelight plays over her face as she smiles. “I snuck up on Allison yesterday. She dropped her tray.”

“Don’t mess with girls from the Ares cabin,” Percy warns. “They’ll beat you up.”

“She said I should come sit with her for s’mores tonight,” Ji-Min says, peering out over the rows of seats. “She’s over there. Can I?”

Annabeth looks at Nico, who shrugs. “Um, if you want to.”

“Okay!” Ji-Min hugs him briefly around the waist and takes off, waving to Percy and Annabeth as she goes. Nico clears his throat, shadows smudging his edges, making all the planes of his face stand out too much.

“Hazel sent me this fancy chocolate,” he says, digging in one pocket. “Raspberry and caramel. Well, some of each. Would it be any good in s’mores?”

“Raspberry doesn’t belong in chocolate,” Annabeth says, patting the bench, “but the caramel could be good, if you want to try it.”

“Hey, I say try the raspberry,” Percy says, already sliding a marshmallow onto a stick. “It could be great.”

“Raspberry chocolate is never great,” Annabeth informs him, rummaging in the bag for a marshmallow of her own. “It tastes nothing like raspberries and it ruins everything it touches.”

“We don’t have to try it,” Nico says. Annabeth taps him on the knee and hands him a marshmallow; he blinks. “There’s plenty of just the caramel.”

“There’s also plenty of marshmallows, try it if you want,” Annabeth says, shrugging. “I think it will be disgusting, but if you like artificial raspberry –”

“It says it’s made with real fruit,” he says, tossing it into the backpack. Annabeth rolls her eyes.

“That doesn’t mean it’s actually going to taste like raspberries, Corpse Head, it just means that they dipped a berry in the artificial sweetener at one point before ruining the chocolate with it. If you want to ruin your s’mores, go ahead.”

“Try it,” Percy says. “It might be awesome.”

“Okay, I guess.” Nico hands Annabeth a block of grooved, silky chocolate. “That’s the caramel. That one should be good, at least.”

“Oh, thanks.” Annabeth cracks off a piece and pauses, sniffing at it. “This is really good stuff – are you sure you want to use it for s’mores?”

“Yeah, why not? There’s nothing else I could use it for.” His lips twitch downward, and he shrugs.

“You could _eat_ it,” Annabeth points out, setting up her marshmallow. “You could save it for something special.”

“I _am_ eating it,” Nico says, blinking at her. “Can I have a marshmallow, please?”

“Right now I’m the only one actually eating it,” Percy says, as Annabeth passes the marshmallows over. “Hey, the raspberry stuff works fine.” He licks a smudge of sticky white off his upper lip, grinning, and Annabeth shakes her head.

“You’re disgusting,” she says.

“Frank eats butter and pretzel sandwiches,” Nico says, a little quietly, turning his marshmallow with methodical steadiness. “He got Hazel doing it.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty good with ketchup,” Percy says, shrugging. “I didn’t expect it to work, honestly.”

“It doesn’t,” Nico says, wrinkling his nose. “They’re all dry, and ketchup makes them soggy.”

“You _tried_ it?” Annabeth shakes her head.

“I didn’t want to make them make something else.” Nico shrugs. “Percy, can you give me the graham crackers back?”

“Oh, crap, I’m hogging them again,” Percy says, tossing them past Annabeth. She leans back out of the way, rolling her eyes. “How come we never see you at New Rome, anyway?”

“It’s not like I live there,” Nico says, carefully prying marshmallow away from his fingers. “I just visit them. Hazel says you’re not out there that often, anyway.”

“Yeah, well.” Percy shrugs. “Nobody out there really knows what to do with me. Usually people don’t get honorably discharged from the legion unless they’ve lost limbs.”

“I know what that’s like,” Nico says, through a mouthful of cracker. “Pardon. The not knowing what to do with me, I mean.”

“Feed you marshmallows, apparently,” Annabeth says, nudging the bag towards him. Nico blinks.

“Um – I didn’t mean – sorry –”

“Hey, relax,” Percy says, tossing a marshmallow at his head. Nico ducks. “’s okay.” He looks away, down at the fire. “It was weird for a while. It shouldn’t’ve been. I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.” Nico reaches one hand out to him, pulls it back. “You didn’t make me… me.”

“That’s not the point,” Annabeth says. “You were –”

“I was _fine,_ ” Nico says. “Look, can we just…”

“Okay,” Percy says, and tosses the stick idly from hand to hand. Annabeth rolls her eyes.

“The caramel is amazing,” she says, for lack of anything else. “Thanks, Nico. It was a great idea.”

“No problem,” he says, ducking his head. His hair curls around his ears in the firelight. “I mean – thanks. I mean, you’re welcome.”

Annabeth holds back a laugh. “I wonder if it would work with anything else,” she says, tilting her head. “Probably not mint.”

“I don’t really like mint,” Nico admits. “It’s just… it’s too much.”

“Even in chocolate? – Does that mean you don’t like Thin Mints?” Percy demands, staring at him. Nico blinks.

“What’s a Thin Mint?”

“What’s a – oh dear gods, we have to fix this,” Percy says, shaking his head. “They’re cookies, they’re _amazing,_ Mom buys them from the Girl Scouts every year –”

“They’re chocolate wafers with a little mint flavoring, and coated in more chocolate,” Annabeth interrupts. “They’re round. And they sell them in the winter, Percy.”

“Oh, yeah.” He shrugs. “Well, next winter I’m making you try one.”

“Uh, what?” Nico blinks. “I, um – okay.” Percy squints at him.

“I mean, you don’t have to, dude. It’s not a big deal, but they’re really good.”

“What? No, uh, it’s okay, I just.” Nico shrugs, letting his marshmallow dip closer to the ground. He stares at his hands, or his feet, something – Annabeth can’t tell. “I’m not sure where I’ll be next winter, that’s all. I hadn’t really planned.”

“What, really?” Percy frowns. “You’re not going to stick around?”

“I mean.” Nico shrugs. “Once Linda shows up, Ji-Min won’t need me anymore. I figured I’d go back to… normal.”

“Montana again?” Annabeth asks. Percy blinks.

“You were in Montana?”

“For a while, yeah. I don’t know.” He shrugs. His shoulderblades stick out sharp through his T-shirt. “I don’t think I’ll go back, I mean, I wasn’t really there for a reason. I’m not sure what I’ll do.”

“You can always stay here if you want,” Annabeth says, as gently as she can. “It’s nice to see the cabin get used.”

Nico blinks. “Did you design it?”

“Yeah. I never got a good chance to test it for actual functionality, though. Does it work?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it’s nice.” He starts to smile, bites his lip.

“Dude, you’re burning your marshmallow,” Percy says, elbowing him in the ribs; Nico starts, jerking it back, and blinks at it.

“Put that side on the chocolate, it’ll kill the bitterness,” Annabeth says, handing him a square of caramel. He nods.

“So, what was in Montana?” Percy asks, leaning in.

“Nothing, really.” Nico shrugs. “I just wound up there. Why does it matter?”

Percy shrugs. “I’ve never been to Montana.”

“Have we really not gone through it?” Annabeth asks, wrinkling her nose. “How many times have we crossed the country now and we’ve never gone through Montana?”

“You’re not missing much,” Nico offers. “I mean, it’s not like I saw all of it, but.”

“So why’d you stay?” Annabeth asks. He shrugs one shoulder.

“It’s where I was. I didn’t have anywhere else to be.”

“Wandering tends to suck,” Annabeth remarks, and impales a marshmallow on her stick. Percy glances at her, frowning. Nico shakes his head, half-aware.

“It’s not… it’s better than just hovering somewhere, I guess. Just doing the same thing over and over again. Being stuck someplace.”

“That makes sense,” Percy says, leaning over to root through the bag. “Hovering kind of sucks too.” Annabeth sighs, shaking her head. Her hair, loose today, falls forwards around her face. The smoke wafts past them, up over the hills.

“Uh.” Nico practically squeaks. “Um. What’d I say?”

Annabeth pushes back her hair, but Percy’s already speaking: “Nothing, it’s fine.”

“We’re kind of going in circles,” Annabeth admits, bracing her fists against her chin. “At least, I have been.”

“Nah, it’s both of us,” Percy says, leaning his head against her shoulder. A soft, low sigh brushes against her ear. “You didn’t say anything, it’s just weird.”

“Oh.” Nico frowns, tapping his roasting stick against the ground. “I mean, I guess I kind of thought you guys would have a lot to do here, with the campers and everything…”

Percy snorts. “Yeah, in the summer.”

“The rest of the year it’s… very empty,” Annabeth says. Emptier even than when she was young. “There’s not a lot that we can do.”

Nico coughs. “Well. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah.” Annabeth sighs, blowing her hair away from her face. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it tonight.”

“That makes sense.” Nico holds the caramel out to her, looking up at her sheepishly. “Here?”

She smiles, small and real. “Thanks.” She breaks a piece away and passes it along to Percy.

It’s late afternoon, and Annabeth is stretched out on the Big House porch, a dog-eared book on design open on her lap. Percy, next to her, is sound asleep, head tilted back against the wicker chair and thin drip of drool descending his chin. Annabeth is keeping track of it, in an idle sort of way. It’ll help when he wakes up and insists that he wasn’t asleep.

She’s not sure what makes her look up, but there’s a small dark figure making his way up the hillside, slowly. She waves.

“Nico!” she calls. “C’mon!”

“Gnaffrf!” contributes Percy, chair creaking as he startles awake. “Mrf – what?”

“Nico,” she explains, waving again. He turns towards her, half-jogging up the hill. He’s breathing hard by the time he reaches the porch.

“What’s the matter?” he asks, dropping his hands to his knees. “What happened?”

“Nothing,” Annabeth says, blinking. “Just saying hi.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” Percy volunteers, rubbing his hands over his eyes. Nico frowns at him.

“Um, you have drool on your chin,” he says.

“ _Thank_ you!” Annabeth points triumphantly. “He always says he’s not asleep.”

“I don’t nap!” Percy protests, and looks between them. Nico’s eyebrows are raised; Annabeth folds her arms. He sighs. “Okay, maybe I was a little bit asleep.”

“You were a lot asleep,” Annabeth says, and glances at the table in front of her. There’s a half-forgotten pitcher of iced tea sweating onto the wicker surface. “Hey, want something to drink?”

“Uh, sure.” Nico perches hesitantly on the porch railing. There’s a minibar-setup next to the chairs; Annabeth liberates a glass and hands him his tea. “Thank you. Have you guys seen Ji-Min? She didn’t come up to the hill this afternoon.”

“I think she went off with Allison,” Annabeth says, leaning back against the wall. “They wanted to talk about Capture the Flag tonight.”

“Really?” Nico starts, tea sloshing over the edge of his glass. “She’s playing Capture the Flag? You guys – she’s really small –”

“They’re going to have her act as lookout,” Annabeth says, reaching for his arm. She pulls herself back in time, remembering about touch. “She’s going to climb a tree and keep an eye on their flag, and shout if anyone’s coming. I think they’re thinking of tying her up there so she can’t fall, actually.”

“Oh.” Nico settles slowly back against the porch pillar, breathing easier. “That’s good.”

“She’s tactically useful but out of the fighting,” Annabeth says, nodding. “It’s a good solution, and she’ll learn a lot.”

“We weren’t gonna let her get hurt, come on,” Percy says, tilting his head back against the chair.

“I didn’t mean –” Nico starts, and stops, exhaling slowly. “Thanks. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Percy says, eyes still half-closed. “You wanna keep her safe. It’s a thing.”

Nico shrugs, looking away over the distance. “Do you ever think about – I mean, she’s so little. I just…”

“Yeah?” Percy asks, blinking his eyes open. He reaches for what is, in fact, Annabeth’s tea, but she hasn’t been drinking it so she lets it be. Nico shrugs again, running one hand through his hair.

“Do you ever think it’s wrong to teach her to fight?” he asks, all in a rush. “I mean – she’s _five,_ and she’s learning to kill things, and people, and I can tell the climbing wall scares her and she keeps trying it anyway and she shouldn’t have to, she can’t even read yet, and…” He trails off, shrugging again. “It just seems wrong. She shouldn’t have to worry about this stuff.”

Annabeth looks at Percy, and finds him looking at her.

“We’ve thought about it,” Percy says slowly, tapping a finger against the tea. “It’s complicated, I guess.”

Annabeth shrugs, twisting her ponytail in her fingers. “I think it’s better than the alternative,” she says, watching the sun on the fields. “I was seven when it started for me. Arachne sent spiders, and – a few days later, I was fighting on my own. I didn’t have any training, I didn’t understand any of what was going on. It would’ve been better if I’d known.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Percy says, stretching out his feet. “I mean, it’s not like it’s something we can – we can’t totally protect them, you know? We can’t keep them all the way safe. So we might as well make it so they can protect themselves, like, so they’ll be okay. Being helpless sucks a lot.”

“You’ve thought about this a _lot_ ,” Nico says, looking back at them. Annabeth shrugs.

“We’ve personally pissed off a lot of monsters,” she says. “They hold grudges. And the blood of the Big Three tends to keep attracting monster attention for several generations, even when the other parent isn’t another powerful half-blood. So.”

“Oh. _Oh._ ” Nico’s eyes widen. “So are you two, uh…”

“What?” Annabeth asks. Nico blushes furiously.

“Like… I mean, uh – are you –”

“Oh _gods of Olympus_ not anytime soon!” Annabeth yelps, catching up. Percy sputters, nearly dropping his tea. “No. Gods, no.”

“We just live in the Big House,” Percy says, pained. “No way.”

“Not for years,” Annabeth echoes, shaking her head. Nico, if possible, is blushing even harder. “I’ve got an implant and everything, it’s not – no.”

“Wait, a what?” Nico frowns at her, pausing in his attempts to merge with the pillars. “Like…”

“Birth control implant?” Annabeth tilts her head, realizing that completely failed to explain anything.“It’s pretty cool, actually, it’s this rod in my arm that releases a hormone substance into my system, so I don’t have to worry for years.”

“You can actually feel it under the skin, it’s really weird,” Percy says, grinning. “Hey, let him see.”

Annabeth shrugs, holding out her arm to him. “It’s right there.” She pokes at it; hesitantly, Nico reaches out one finger and brushes it against her skin. “Well, you have to push a little.”

“Um, okay.” He presses down; his eyes widen. “Okay, that’s weird, you’re right.” He’s still pink, looking at the floor.

“I’m oversharing, aren’t I?” Annabeth winces. “Sorry. Piper got me to start helping her teach sex ed a while ago, so I kind of forgot about boundaries.”

“It’s okay,” Nico says absently, poking at the rod under her skin again. “So, is this a mortal thing, or…”

“As far as I can tell,” Annabeth says, nodding. “It’s definitely not really… anything any of the gods do.”

“Hera, maybe?” Percy offers, tilting his head back again. “I mean, goddess of family, family planning…”

“Huh.” Annabeth pauses, thinking, and is interrupted by Nico clearing his throat.

“Sorry, I just – don’t really need to think about this, ever,” he offers. “I mean…”

“You’re right.” Annabeth sighs. “Besides, we might end up attacked by furious peacocks. She hasn’t tried that on us yet.”

Nico makes a soft, affirmative noise, sitting up again. He drops his hands to his knees. “I never found out why you two hated her,” he admits, a little sheepish. “Or why she hates you.”

Annabeth scowls, staring at the hills and at her memories. “She’s dangerous,” she says. “And manipulative. When we were in the labyrinth, she tried to play us. And everything with the camps, of course.”

“Right,” Nico nods. “But you hated her before then. Just because… of the labyrinth?”

“Well, she hates us too,” Annabeth says, lips thinning. “She’s the goddess of marriage. We’re a bunch of bastards. We’re not part of her perfect family, so she’d rather we didn’t exist.”

“You’re kind of what tipped us off, about that,” Percy says sleepily, pouring himself another glass of tea. The first one didn’t seem to help him much. “She sold you out, at the Triple G. We found out, and we kind of figured we could do without her help. And said so. She didn’t like that much.”

“That’s right,” Annabeth says, remembering now, and blinks away the memory of shifting brick just in time to realize Nico is staring at them, eyes wide and jaw slack.

“You started a feud with the queen of the gods because of _me?_ ”

“Well, it was more that the way she treated you is what told us she was someone we wanted to have a feud with,” Percy says. “I mean, not that we wanted a feud –”

“But we didn’t want her help, either,” Annabeth finishes, grimacing. She’d handled that one with less wisdom than she might have, but at the same time… she wouldn’t be any prouder of her decisions if she’d let Hera sell out her cousins, her comrades, without a fight. “I do… respect what she did in the Gaea war, though,” she admits, after a moment. “I mean, not that I wanted you stolen,” she adds, clutching at Percy’s hand. “But. I think the camp is better now.”

“I miss it sometimes,” Percy admits, “but… yeah.”

“I miss it too,” Annabeth admits, and for a moment their eyes lock. She swallows; the lostness in his eyes is something that usually makes her look away from the mirror.

“I’m glad I met the Romans and everyone, though,” Percy says, dropping her hand to reach for his tea again, and the moment cracks. Annabeth finds herself looking at the brand inside his arm, the signs: honorable discharge, cut loose. “Hazel and Frank are great.”

“Yeah,” Nico says, kicking his feet against the railing. He smiles distantly. It’s good to see him smile, Annabeth thinks; good to see him taller, too, and he’s less pale than he was five years ago. Maybe less pale than he was at the start of June, come to that. “A lot has changed, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Annabeth says. Percy nods.

“You’re a lot taller, for one thing,” he chimes in, kicking one foot in Nico’s direction. Nico grimaces, shaking his hair out of his eyes.

“Not tall enough,” he says, and Annabeth bites back a laugh. She and Percy still have about an inch on him.

“You might keep growing,” she points out. He’s not just thin but gangly, she notices. Coltish, that’s the word.

“I probably won’t,” he says, resigned.

“Pessimist,” Annabeth accuses, stretching. Nico shrugs.

“I mean – my mother was short, I think, and I haven’t grown in a while. So.” He sighs. “I think I’m stuck.”

“Don’t give up, dude,” Percy says, actually nudging him with his foot this time. Nico blinks down at his toe, which got the nail split at practice the day before. It’s kind of fascinatingly hideous, cracked and bloody. Nico jerks his head away, blushing – probably because he was staring, Annabeth guesses. She’s seen him chat with ghosts whose intestines trailed across the floor, and she doubts he’s gotten _more_ squeamish since Gaea’s rebellion.

“I’ll try not to,” Nico says, surprisingly serious, and Percy just nods.

“Good,” he says, and closes his eyes.

“Oh, don’t go back to sleep,” Annabeth says, kicking him, “it’s almost dinner,” and the little gathering on the porch splinters quickly after that.

**vi. Nico**

Ji-Min spends the whole week leading up to the Fourth of July chattering about it – about the fireworks, the hot dogs, the beachside cookout, the fireworks again, the dancing. Which, actually – a lot of the dancing Nico’s seen around has been pretty racy, but. Chiron will be chaperoning, and some other people, and Ji-Min’s the youngest camper by a long ways but some of the others, the ten-year-olds, they’re still pretty small. So maybe it’ll be fine, after all. And anyway, it’s not like Ji-Min cares about anything except the fireworks – “blue and green and gold and purple and it’ll be shaped like all the sigils, Nico, they’re going to make a lightning bolt!” Nico doesn’t know, and didn’t ask, whether Hades will have a helm or a skull or something etched against the stars.

“You’re going, right?” she asks him, the afternoon of the Fourth, face crinkled and fretful in a way that means she’s fretting about it.

“I’ll come down and make sure you find Allison and everyone,” he promises. She nods, relaxing a bit, but she’s still frowning, and he tilts his head. “What’s the matter?”

“Are you going after that?” she asks. “Or are you going to miss the fireworks and everything?”

“I, uh…” She frowns up at him, three feet of raw concern. “I’ll… watch the fireworks, sure.” From his cabin window, curled up on his bed with an audiobook from the screened Internet connection at the big house.

“Good,” Ji-Min says, and bounces up. “I’m gonna go try flying on the volleyball courts.”

“Not too high,” he orders, and she rolls her eyes.

“I’m not good enough to go high yet.”

“You’ve got plenty of time,” he promises, and with a shrug she takes off down the hill. The volleyball courts are safe enough – soft sand – and generally full of watchers, but Nico still bites his lip after her.

She actually knocks at his door, later that night, pounding away outside the cabin until Nico drags himself out of his nice comfortable bunk with his nice comfortable third-hand GameBoy and goes to answer.

“I was going to come get you, I promise,” he says, jerking the door open. Ji-Min only shrugs up at him.

“It’s starting now,” she says, and laces her hands behind her back, pointedly patient. Nico sighs.

“All right, I’m coming,” he says, dragging his hand through his hair, and steps outside.

It’s dusk falling, the last edge of sunset vanishing over the hills, streaking the sky in rose and violet, and Nico can’t help relaxing a little as the two of them make their way down to the beach. There’s already a solid cluster of people, and drifting music – maybe he should’ve gone up Cabin One earlier, and he holds back a wince – but Allison finds them easily enough, ducking through people to yell “Hey, punklet!”

“Here!” Ji-Min calls, waving, and runs a few steps forward before she stops to eyeball Nico. “Remember, you promised to stay for the fireworks.”

“I didn’t –” Nico starts, but she’s already grabbed Allison’s hand and they’re vanishing down the beach, presumably for an optimal spot. It’s good, that she’s got friends besides him, that she’s got more and more people at the camp who look after her. It’s good, that she needs him less.

He’s turning back to the cabins, but the rich smokey smell of the barbecue transplanted down to the beach reminds him that he hasn’t actually eaten today. There’s not too many people around the table, and a little ducking lets him ease in close and load up a plate. Some of the actual barbecue, some potatoes, maybe the pasta salad –

“Nico!” someone says, jostling him. It’s Percy, hair damp and falling into his eyes, shirt sticking to clearly-wet skin in patches, Annabeth behind him with her own hair dripping down her back. “Hey, come on,” Percy says, “come with us.”

“Don’t you have to chaperone?” Nico asks, clutching at his plate frantically. There’s something off about Percy’s grin, about how pink he looks – not bad, nothing that makes his skin crawl like monsters do, but something different. Percy shakes his head.

“Chiron let us off,” Annabeth says, smiling herself. “Come on, there’s a spot down the beach that’s great. Away from everybody but we can still see.”

“Oh.” Nico blinks – isn’t the Fourth usually kind of a date thing? But maybe they’ve been together so long that it doesn’t really matter – and follows them, plate still pulled close. Percy has a big plastic bottle swinging from one hand, one that looks like it was repurposed from an orange juice bottle or something; a few hundred yards down the beach, just past a cluster of grass, he drops to the sand and tugs Annabeth down gently by the hand. He pats the ground beside him, looking up at Nico.

“Hi,” Nico says inanely, dropping down next to him, and winces. Percy doesn’t seem to mind, though, just holds out the weird bottle.

“Want some?” he asks.

“Sure,” Nico says, accepting it. He’s just tipping it back to his mouth when Annabeth looks up from squeezing water out of her hair and yelps.

“Nico, hang on, that’s got –”

He pulls back from the bottle, swallowing hurriedly as whatever’s in it scorches his throat, making his eyes water. “– vodka in it,” Annabeth finishes, wincing, as Nico coughs.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry,” Percy says, eyes wide as he reaches over to reclaim the bottle. “I thought I’d warned you, dude, I’m really sorry.”

“’S okay,” Nico manages, holding back another cough. The instinct fades pretty well, actually, and he licks his lips. “It’s fine. What is that?”

“Lemonade, vodka, and Sprite,” Annabeth says, leaning back on her elbows. “ _Cheap_ vodka. It’s totally without class, but it tastes good.”

“And it’s sort of not Mr. D’s thing,” Percy says, all smugness. “I mean, okay, it kind of is, but it’s not… it’s not like it’s grapes.”

“That seems kind of petty,” Nico says, and glances at the bottle again. His throat feels only a little warm, now, and he’s curious. “Uh, do you mind if I have some more?”

“Nah, have as much as you want,” Percy says, nudging the bottle across the sand. “I mean, be careful, but go ahead.”

“Thanks.” Nico takes a smaller sip this time. The vodka part is less obvious with less of it, just a low burn coming after the sweetness of the lemonade.

“You can’t really see the stars yet,” Percy says, tilting his head back. He’s practically lying in the sand, now. “It’s pretty, though.”

“Yeah,” Nico murmurs.

The three of them pass the bottle back and forth, for a while, and the heat of it gets less startling. It really is a heat too, Nico is surprised to note, warming him up from his throat on out. It’s odd, but he kind of likes it. The sand is soft, too, cooler against his flushing skin.

“Why aren’t you two hanging out with everyone?” he asks eventually, waving a hand at the light of the beachside bonfire. “I mean, if you’re not looking to be, you know, on your own.”

“We’re too old for it,” Percy says, flicking sand towards the sea. “It makes it weird.”

“We’re sort of chaperoning by default, if we’re there,” Annabeth adds, leaning her head against Percy’s shoulder. Her hair curls against his T-shirt, silvery in the light. Nico screws the lid back on the much-lighter bottle, settling it next to Percy’s knee. “It’s more fun for everyone if we watch from down here.”

“Oh.” Nico bites his lip, glancing up. The fireworks haven’t started yet, but it’s dark enough now. Soon, probably. “I guess it’s good that I’m out here, too.”

“What? Shit, we just wanted your company,” Percy says, rolling his head sideways to stare at him. “That’s all. Relax.” His hand settles on Nico’s hair, stroking through it, and Nico twitches. Percy pets him again, scratching softly behind his ear, gentle and slow.

“Percy, don’t –” Annabeth says, reaching for him, and Percy grimaces, pulling back.

“Shit, I’m sorry, I forgot, the touch thing –”

“It’s fine,” Nico says, strangely sleepy and too warm-feeling to care. “It’s okay, it’s kind of nice.”

“Oh. Cool.” Percy’s hand settles in his hair again, stroking gently through. It _is_ nice. “I’m kind of honored. Like, I’m glad you don’t mind.”

“It feels good,” Nico murmurs. His eyes slipped closed on him, at some point; he blinks them open. “Although I guess I probably shouldn’t. I mean, you don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?” Percy asks.

“No, _you_ don’t know.” Nico blinks, his tongue feeling loose and heavy in his mouth. It’s strange. Maybe from the alcohol? “I mean, you don’t know things, you might not want to actually do that.”

The hand in his hair goes still, and Percy squints suspiciously at him. “What, do you have lice or something?”

“What? No! No.” Nico blinks, watching the stars shine off the water. Percy’s hand in his hair has started moving again, and he feels loose-limbed and half-guilty and like none of this is real. And he’s started this already. “No, it’s… I’m gay. So.”

“What? Oh. Huh.” Percy runs his fingers through Nico’s hair again, digging in gently. It’s a soft touch, a gentle one, and Nico swallows, letting his eyelids flutter closed again. “That’s cool, it doesn’t matter.”

“What, really?”

“Yeah.” Percy’s hand is moving through his hair still, making his skin prickle pleasantly. “I mean, like, if it matters to you, but it’s not a – I’m not going to not _touch you_ or anything, what the hell.”

“I just thought…” Nico shrugs, pushing gently back against the touch. “I mean, I used to have a crush on you.” He probably ought to be horrified that he just said that, but Percy’s hand only pauses for a second before he starts up again. “A while back.”

“Huh.” It’s Annabeth’s soft voice, and when Nico opens his eyes she’s leaning up on one elbow, watching her boyfriend play with Nico’s hair. “I used to think you had a crush on me, actually. I guess not.”

“I was jealous of you,” Nico admits. He’s not sure how easy to hear he is over the waves, but Annabeth nods like she’s listening. “And… I mean, I kind of tried to? I – that doesn’t make sense, really. But. You know. It would’ve been normal.”

“Oh.” She pauses, studying him with the exact expression she uses on architecture books and her notes on her students. “Are you… all right? I mean, are – no one at Camp Half-Blood is going to think there’s anything wrong with you, Nico. And if they do, they’ll answer to us.”

“I… you don’t have to do that.” Nico reaches for the bottle and realizes it’s half-empty, which might explain the warmth still spreading from his throat on out.

“Bullshit we don’t,” Percy says, actually patting his head. Nico almost objects, but the gentle stroking resumes, and it’s still soothing, still gentle. “We like you, and anyway, that’s bullshit.”

“Uh.”

“We wouldn’t put up with – that, with homophobia or anything, even if we didn’t care about you,” Annabeth translates, sitting up. She shakes her hair back, still looking at him. “Does anyone know besides us?”

“Hazel,” Nico says, idly scooping up the sand. Percy _still_ hasn’t gotten tired of his hair, and it’s still nice. “I – I told her, a few years ago. I had to know what she’d do. She didn’t mind.”

“Of course she didn’t,” Annabeth says, wrapping her arm around her knees. “Anyone else?”

“I think she told Frank,” Nico says, shrugging. “I mean, I figured she would. And Jason knows, so anyone he’s told, probably Piper.”

“When’d you tell Jason?” Percy asks, sitting up himself, pulling his hand back in the process. Nico shakes his head, trying to shift the lingering feeling out of his hair.

“I didn’t really,” he says. “He just kind of… found out. It was when we went to get the Scepter from Eros.”

“Ohhhh.” Annabeth nods. “Of course. Eros and the Erotes.” When Nico blinks at her, she adds, “The other Erotes are minor gods, and they’ve always had a lot to do with gay people, things like that.”

“Well, I could do without them,” Nico mutters.

“Be careful,” Annabeth says softly. “I mean, we’re safe here, but.”

“I will.” She bites her lip, and he adds, “I promise.”

“Good.” Annabeth nods, leaning back. “Thank you for telling us.”

“Huh?” Percy asks, blinking at her, and she rolls her eyes.

“Thank you for the trust, I meant.”

“Oh,” Percy says, and Nico giggles. He bites down on his lip immediately, but Annabeth just laughs with him, low and fond.

“You’re welcome,” Nico says, settling back into the sand. Percy leans back between them. Down the beach, the sound of conversation is rising, a few indistinct shouts rising above the hum.

“I think they’re starting the fireworks!” Percy says, just as a high whistle brings a streak of gold across the sky to burst in brilliant-blue sparks. All three of them laugh, Annabeth gentle, Percy sheepish, Nico warm and surprised, and as the next fireworks shoot up Percy’s hand settles back in Nico’s hair.

 

 

 

Nico’s curled up on his bed, settling himself right in the middle of the afternoon sunlight, which has soaked into his sheets and made them warm as well as soft. He washed them yesterday, too, so they even smell good. The detergent at Camp Half-Blood smells a lot better than the cheap Laundromat stuff he usually uses, but not vanilla-y like Hazel’s stuff.

He’s not really doing anything much – braiding a thin strand of his hair for something to do with his hands, letting the radio in the corner play something slow from a station he _thinks_ is being run by Hermes and Apollo – but it still takes him a minute or two to notice the shimmer. He sits up, brushing his hair out of his eyes.

“Hey, Fleecy,” he says. Hazel introduced them, a few years ago. “Or Iris, I guess. I can take that, if that’s fine. Thanks.”

The light unfolds, revealing Hazel and Frank’s place in New Rome, and also revealing Frank, who is leaning by the window. “Hey, Nico!”

“Hey, Frank.” Nico straightens, a little. “What’s up?”

“You look good,” Frank says, blinking at him. Nico glances down.

“Uh, thanks?”

“I mean – not so pale, and stuff. And like you’re eating.”

“Percy and Annabeth keep making me eat s’mores,” Nico offers, shrugging. “And Ji-Min keeps telling me to eat the barbecue.” He pauses. “And I always _eat._ ”

“Uh-huh.” Frank shrugs. “Anyway, I’m – actually, I’m kind of asking a favor? There’s something going on in Kansas, I guess, a monster or something. It doesn’t look big enough to be a quest, yet, but I want to know what’s going on, so.”

“You want me to go take a look at it?”

“Not alone!” Frank says, eyes widening. “No, no, but – we don’t want to make a big deal out of it, but Reyna and I are both busy, and Hazel already knows about it so she offered to go, but she should have backup, so…”

“Does she know about this?” Nico asks, frowning at him. Frank blinks.

“What? Of course, she’s out getting groceries and I wanted to ask you while I was thinking of it.”

“Oh. Okay.” Nico nods. “Sure, I can do that. If she comes through the Roman Passage tomorrow I can probably get us to Kansas.”

He mentions he’ll be gone to Ji-Min after dinner, and tells Percy and Annabeth at the campfire that night, and expects that to be the end of it. Of course, when he makes his way up to the Roman Passage the next afternoon – around one, as agreed – he finds all three of them waiting, lounging not-particularly-casually on the hillside.

“What are you guys doing here?” he asks.

“Kinda seeing you off?” Percy offers. “I mean, we’re up here anyway.”

“Plus I want to meet Hazel,” Ji-Min says, leaning back against Annabeth’s knee. Nico blinks.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, I know.” Percy grins.

“I’m going to be back in a day or two,” Nico says, staring at the three of them. Percy shrugs.

“Things go wrong,” Annabeth points out, shrugging. “Anyway, like he said, we’re up here anyhow.”

Nico blinks again, and is saved from considering this by the gentle hum of the Passage. The air between the pillars goes misty, or Misty, and then Hazel steps through, patting the pillars on either side of her like she would a good horse. Then she looks up.

“Nico!” She reaches out for him, pulling him close. She’s an inch taller than him now, with her hair anyway, and she hugs him tight enough for him to grunt. “Frank _said_ you were looking good. Hi!”

“Hi, Hazel,” he says, hugging her back. Her hair smells like vanilla and strawberry, and he closes his eyes and holds her tight. She’s warm.

“Hey. Um, thanks again, I didn’t really want to do this on my own,” she says, and lets go of him. “Oh. Percy! Annabeth!”

A lot of hugging follows,  and Ji-Min clears her throat and tugs at Nico’s hand as it goes on. “Can you introduce me?” she whispers.

“Of course,” Nico whispers back. “Hazel! Um, this is Ji-Min, she’d like to meet you.”

“Hi.” Hazel straightens her hair, smiling, and Ji-Min stretches out a hand solemnly. Hazel’s mouth twitches. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ji-Min.” They shake, Hazel carefully serious, and Ji-Min beams.

“Did you really build that?” she asks, pointing to the passage, just as Annabeth says, “How’s Reyna?” Hazel blinks, looking between them.

“Um, yes, I did, with a lot of help, and she’s doing well,” she says at last. “Um, hey, I really want to catch up and everything, but I kind of…”

“Places to go, monsters to kill?” Percy asks, stretching. Every single time he does that, his shirt rides up. Hazel grins at him, bouncing on her feet.

“Pretty much, yes,” she says. “The thing is, we don’t really know what we’re looking at – it might just be a runaway boa constrictor or something, but it might also be the Elder Python, so...”

“If it is, come for backup,” Annabeth says.

“Well, of course,” Hazel agrees. “But it might just be a runaway boa constrictor. I do want to find out, though.”

“All right,” Nico says, stepping up to business, and reaches for her hands. “You guide, I’ll power?” They’ve worked this out before, how the two of them can shadow-travel to somewhere Hazel has in mind. It works pretty well. It takes a little moving to get the two of them in the shade – the shadow of one of the pillars of the passage is enough – and Nico closes his eyes and lets the shadows take him, lets Hazel pull him out. For a long time, he would pull back, try to wrest control of the whole thing, and drop them out of the shadows halfway to nowhere, but he’s learned how to trust her. He can feel the exact moment she takes over, pulling them out into the light.

They are, naturally, in a cornfield.

“Keep an eye out for karpoi,” Hazel mutters, glaring at the ground. Nico nods.

“We do not have a lot of luck with plants, do we?” He pokes a stalk of corn with one outstretched fingertip. The corn neither sprouts a spirit to attack him nor attempts to transform him into a duplicate corn plant. A second poke produces the same non-result. Hazel nods.

“We don’t,” she says. “Hey, I’m glad you’re liking Camp Half-Blood. You seem… happier.”

“I don’t know if it’s the camp, exactly,” Nico demurs, and then stops. “I… I guess it isn’t. It’s just. Ji-Min loves it there, and Percy and Annabeth are really nice, and…”

“Yeah?” Hazel is studying him, eyes wide. “Is… I don’t know, is something different? You seem different.”

“A little bit,” Nico allows. “We hang out a lot, and…” For some reason he thinks of Percy’s hand in his hair again, playing with the feathery bits behind his ears, and of Annabeth remembering that Nico didn’t like touch most of the time, reaching out to stop Percy and pulling back when Nico said he didn’t mind. It was… nice of her. “I don’t know,” he says at last. “They’re cool, I guess.”

“And that’s it? Well.” Hazel shrugs. “I’m glad.” She steps forward, wrapping her arms around him. Nico blinks, shrugs as well as he can with her arms around his shoulders, and buries his face in her hair. She’s warm, and strong, and he breathes in. Whatever this is about, it’s nice.

“Okay?” he says, blinking, when she steps back. She shrugs, half-smiling.

“Anyway,” she says. “Let’s find ourselves a snake.”

Naturally, it’s not that easy.

“There is a _lot_ of corn,” Nico says, an hour later. Hazel nods from a few rows over, rubbing her sleeve over her forehead.

“And not a lot of snakes,” she agrees. “Maybe it really wasn’t anythi – _ack!_ ”

“Hazel!” Nico yells, shoving through the corn. Stalks snap behind him; he jerks his sword out as he goes and slashes through the next row.

“I’m okay!” Hazel yells. He can see her better now, crouched in the dirt, using her spear to hold something at bay. It takes him a precious second to process what.

The snake is thicker around than Nico, thicker even than Frank, and he’s not sure where its long pale-golden tail ends and the grass begins. Its scales glint dully in the light, and as he watches it opens its mouth around fangs longer than his arm and _hisses._

“That is not a runaway boa constrictor,” he says.

“No, it’s not,” Hazel says, and swipes at it. It jerks back, lowering its head, and twitches, slithering – not towards her, but sideways, sidling as if it’s trying to get behind her. Nico reaches out through the ground around him, searching for something – the bones of wolves, the bodies of soldiers, anything – but the ground is strangely desolate: birds, rodents, other snakes, insects, small things that will be no help against the creature in front of him. Hazel eases forwards, following the head; Nico paces steadily up behind her, trying to pinch the snake between them.

“We might want to come back with reinforcements,” he says, just as the snake _convulses._ Hazel jumps back, dodging a coil that’s trying to crush her – is this a venomous snake or a constrictor, gods take it? – and stumbles, pulling a surge of rock and spray in front of her. The snake flinches away, coiling sideways, and Nico lunges, sword outstretched.

He doesn’t even see it; all he knows is the pain ripping through his shoulder, and the hot silky scales against his face, choking off his breath. The pain pulses outwards, outwards again, burning; the snake thrashes and the pain gets worse, venom pumping into him. Someone is screaming, two someones; one of them sounds like Hazel, and there’s something stinging his face, barely noticeable. He struggles to lift his sword; his arm aches, throbs, he can’t control it, but the weight at the end of his arm hits something and the snake thrashes again. The stinging continues – stones and sand, that’s what’s blurring his vision, at least part of it – and the shouting, and then the weight on his shoulder is gone, the snake no longer attached, and it’s Hazel’s hair against his face, Hazel screaming “Nico, go, get us out of here, someplace safe, go, oh gods, please, _please_ don’t die, go, go!”

He inhales, closing his eyes – were they already closed? He can’t see – and thinks _safesafesafe._

**_vii. Annabeth_ **

“Annabeth!”

The sound of pounding feet pulls her out of her lesson plan; she’s just closing her book when the door to their room slams open, and Percy skids to a stop in front of her, paler than she’s seen him in a long time. “Annabeth – it’s Nico – come on, he just, he just showed up on the porch, him and Hazel, Chiron’s got him but – come on!”

She knocks her chair over standing up and lets it fall, running with him down the stairs.

Nico is sprawled out unconscious on the wicker coffee table on the porch, apparently the best platform they could find; his shirt’s been cut away already. Hazel is clutching his hand, and Chiron is kneeling by his head, pouring ambrosia directly onto two deep punctures the size of her clenched fist, both of them already a swollen, overripe red. The reek hits her then, blood and acid and decay.

“What the _fuck_ happened?” she says.

“I didn’t know he was going to charge,” Hazel says, swallowing. Her hands clench around Nico’s; he doesn’t react at all. “And the snake was fast, it was so fast, I think – I think it might’ve actually been Python. I didn’t have time to look.”

“I’ll pass that on to Olympus,” Chiron says, still busy. Gods of Olympus, it’s so close to his throat. “This will need a full-fledged quest – we’ll have to talk about whether it’s ours or the Romans’ –”

“Just fix him first,” Hazel says, scrubbing one hand across her eyes. Annabeth goes to her, steps stiff and slow. She wraps one arm around Hazel’s shoulders and takes Nico’s wrist with her other hand, feeling for a pulse. Still there.

“They just appeared,” Percy says, staring at him. He’s so pale, everywhere except the thin red lines spiderwebbing out from his shoulder. “I just, I was out here, I was eating real quick before the lessons, and then suddenly…”

“I told him to get us out of there,” Hazel says, curling closer to Annabeth. “To get us somewhere safe. I guess he thought of here, or of you, I don’t know…”

“Can you save him, Chiron?” Annabeth demands. Chiron sighs, stepping back.

“Maybe,” he says. “He’s been poisoned very badly. I’ll need the Fleece, I think, but between that and the ambrosia he has a chance. You did well, Hazel, leaving immediately. If you had stayed to finish the fight, there would have been nothing I could do.”

“The Fleece, really?” Annabeth swallows, looking at the absolute grey stillness of his face. He doesn’t even look like he’s hurting; he looks gone, muscles all slack. None of the quiet pickiness or the reserved concern or the thoughtless kindness she’s gotten used to, none of the… She swallows, her throat burning. The rest of her is cold. “It’s that bad?”

“It’s not good,” Chiron says, spreading an evaluative hand over the punctures. “Better to be sure.”

“Should I go get the Fleece, then?” Hazel asks, still shaking. Chiron nods.

“If you would,” he says. Hazel stands.

“I can –” Annabeth offers, but Hazel shakes her head.

“Is he going to die in the next five minutes?” she asks.

“Unlikely.”

“Then I’d rather… I want to do something.” Hazel shrugs at them, face crumpling briefly; she wipes one hand over her eyes and heads for Half-Blood Hill. “You two stay with him. I just…”

Annabeth nods, tightening her grip on Nico’s wrist. Percy comes to her, sliding into the space that Hazel left, and wraps his hand around Nico’s too.

“C’mon, Nico,” he breathes. “You can’t be dead _now_ , come on.”

“Chiron just said he’s not,” Annabeth says tightly, squeezing Nico’s hand. Percy’s hand is really more wrapped around hers than Nico’s, and his fingers tighten over hers. She can hear Nico’s breathing, shallow and slow.

Hazel comes trotting back, the Fleece piled in her arms. “Is he –”

“As he was,” Chiron says, still working. Annabeth’s not sure what he’s doing; thick green sludge is splattered across the porch floorboards now, intermingled with Nico’s blood, and there’s something distant and glowing around his hands. She’s no healer; she can’t tell. “Here, put it over him.”

Hazel does, slowly, tugging the edge of the fur up to his chin, and Nico breathes in deeply enough that Annabeth can see his chest move under the Fleece. Chiron straightens, sighing.

“Well, it’s something,” he says. “I can bring him in now, I think. Annabeth, bring the nectar.” And with that, he scoops Nico up in his arms, Fleece and all, and clops off. Hazel strides to keep up, squeezing through the doorway at his side; Annabeth gathers up the nectar jar, and realizes Percy is collecting something too. Nico’s shirt.

“Maybe we can fix it or something,” he says, when she tilts her head at him. “I don’t know, he wore it a lot.”

She nods and steps forward, wrapping her arms around him quickly. He squeezes her back, kissing her hair.

“He got through Tartarus,” she whispers. “He’s going to be fine.”

“Yeah.” Percy’s voice shakes, but he nods. “C’mon.”

There are sickrooms just inside; the one currently full of Chiron, Hazel and Nico looks out over the porch. There’s room for Percy and Annabeth once they squeeze inside, and Chiron steps back from the bed, shaking his head.

“Now we let the Fleece do its work,” he says. “Hourly nectar will help, just a few sips.”

“But he’ll be all right,” Hazel says. Chiron sighs.

“I certainly hope so,” he says. Annabeth bites her lip, looking away from Nico’s thin shape, and notices something else.

“Hazel, your foot.”

Hazel glances down at her swelling ankle and curses viciously, shaking her head. “I didn’t even notice.”

“Well.” Chiron sighs, flicking his tail. “If you’ll come with me, I can do something about that, at least.”

“I don’t want to leave him,” Hazel protests, moving closer to the bed. She flinches as the weight comes down on that foot, and Annabeth shakes her head.

“You need to get that looked at.”

“But –” Hazel’s voice cracks as she looks at Nico, then down. “He’s my family.”

“If anything happens,” Chiron says softly, “if he gets worse, we will have warning. And I don’t have the space to tend to you both in here.”

“We can yell if anything happens,” Percy offers. Hazel bites her lip, looking back and forth. She steps towards the bed, flinches again, and gives in.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she says. “Can… can it be quick?”

“I’ll be as fast as I can,” Chiron promises her, and takes her hand. She looks back over her shoulder every second that she goes.

Annabeth swallows, looking again at Nico’s small shape in the bed, and goes to put the nectar on the nightstand. Percy slumps to the floor, leaning back against the side of the bed.

“Fucking hell,” he says quietly. Annabeth nods, settling next to him.

“Fucking hell,” she agrees.

After a while there are footsteps outside, but not Chiron’s steady clopping (or wheelchair squeaking) or a limp that might be Hazel. “Percy?” someone calls, someone not overly familiar – one of the new Hebe kids, Annabeth thinks. “Uh, are you around?”

“In here,” Percy calls, lifting his head from his knees.

“We’re all waiting –” The girl stops in the doorway, blinking. “Um, is everything okay?”

“Shit. Lessons.” Percy sighs, rubbing his forehead. “Uh. I can be down in a minute –”

“We can just drill,” the girl offers. “Like. This looks important?”

“I…” Percy looks from her back to Nico, still not breathing perfectly, and sighs. “Okay. Don’t let Adam trounce anybody.”

“We’ll try,” the girl – Leslie, Annabeth recognizes her now – promises, and turns. “Um. I hope he gets better.”

And with that, she’s gone. Annabeth inches closer to Percy.

“I should’ve gone,” he mutters. “I just.”

“I don’t want to teach anything right now, either,” Annabeth admits. “It might be better to do something, though.” But she doesn’t get up. Percy just nods. There’s nothing so important that they’ll be eaten if they don’t do it, and Nico’s still hideously pale even for him. He really has been less washed-out-looking lately, brighter. He had a sunburn, earlier this week. He complained about it. There’s still hints of pink on the back of his arms.

There are footsteps outside, again – still not ones that sound like Chiron or Hazel. Annabeth looks up, and when the door creaks open she bites down another extensive curse, because there’s Allison, with Ji-Min clutching at her hand.

“People were saying something had happened to Nico,” Allison says hesitantly, as Ji-Min’s face screws up. Annabeth swallows hard.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” she says.

“Why’s he asleep?” Ji-Min asks.

“Um.” Annabeth clears her throat. “He _is_ hurt. He’s poisoned.”

“When’s he going to wake up?”

“Uh…” She glances at Percy, who shrugs at her. “Hopefully soon.”

“You don’t _know?_ ” Ji-Min’s voice climbs, louder and more shrill, and Annabeth flinches.

“We’re not sure,” she admits, and Ji-Min crumples, dropping to the ground to bury her face against her knees, sniffling furiously.

“Oh, no,” Annabeth whispers, and reaches out to her, pulling her close. Thank the gods, Ji-Min doesn’t fight her, just leans in. Percy wraps around them too, settling a hand on Ji-Min’s back. Annabeth glances at him, mouthing _Help!_

“Uh, rock her?” Percy whispers, petting her back. Annabeth tries that, and Ji-Min burrows into her. Allison, still in the doorway, coughs.

“I’ll just… go,” she offers. “Um. I’ll be in my cabin, if she needs me. I hope he’s okay!” And with that, she flees, feet pounding down the hall. There’s still no sign of Chiron or Hazel.

“Shhhh, shhh, shhh,” Percy is murmuring, rubbing Ji-Min’s shoulders. She’s soaking through Annabeth’s shirtfront by now, cold and sticky and a little disgusting, and she’s heavy. Annabeth sighs, closing her eyes, and just waits.

“I don’t want to be a half-blood,” Ji-Min sniffles at last, once her sobs have trailed off. “I don’t wanna stay here forever.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Percy says. “You don’t have to stay here forever, it’s okay. You can leave.”

“Nico left and now he’s hurt and you don’t know when he’s going to wake up,” Ji-Min says in a rush, barely lifting her head from Annabeth’s shirt. Percy looks at Annabeth; she shakes her head, sighing. “Why’d he leave?” Ji-Min asks.

“None of us got hurt when we met you,” Annabeth points out. “That was okay.”

“And you wouldn’t have met him in the first place if you weren’t a half-blood,” Percy adds, smoothing her hair back. “Or Allison or Annabeth or me or anyone. That’d be bad, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Ji-Min sniffles. “But everyone says you can’t leave or you’ll get hurt. And he left and he got hurt. And you wouldn’t let me leave if I said I was gonna leave. You guys don’t leave.”

“That’s because you’re five,” Annabeth says automatically, and sighs at herself, pulling Ji-Min closer. “Look. Leaving can be dangerous, sometimes. A lot of things can. But it’s not that bad, especially if you have people with you to help you, so you can look out for each other. Nico –” She stops and swallows. “Nico spent a lot of time away, without anybody, and this is the first time in years he’s gotten hurt like this.” _I think._ “And that’s because he and Hazel ran into something really bad, okay? So if you’re careful and you learn and you always have people to back you up, you’ll be fine.”

“As long as you don’t have really bad luck, you’ll be okay,” Percy echoes. “Just like Nico’s gonna be okay. It’s not always this bad.”

“Really?” Ji-Min sniffs.

“Really,” Annabeth says, tightening her arms around her, and looks up at Percy. He leans his head against her shoulder.

“Can I stay up here until he wakes up?” Ji-Min asks.

“Probably, sure,” Percy says, tugging her pigtail. “Hey, there’s tissues on the nightstand. Let’s dry you off, huh?”

They arrange themselves; they wait. Ji-Min fidgets until Annabeth fishes a pencil out of her hair – stuck through her ponytail – and a scrap of paper out of her pocket. Finally – before the first hour is up, even – there’s the shuffling sound of Hazel coming back.

“Hey,” she says softly at the doorway. “He had to set my ankle, and I had to call Frank, tell him what happened. Um. Can I sit?”

“Of course,” Annabeth says, inching aside. It brings her closer to Percy, too, lets her nestle against him and listen as closely as she can for any sound from the bed above her.

Hazel dozes, after a while. Annabeth slips out to get her laptop – fretting silently and rattling off the walls won’t help – but she slips back in as soon as she can, and winds up entangled in Percy and Ji-Min again in moments. Percy is playing with a piece of string, knotting it into a bracelet. One of the other campers insistently taught him last summer.

It’s near dinner when there’s a rustling noise behind them. Everyone turns at once, limbs scrabbling – someone elbows Annabeth in the ribs, fortunately not too hard – to find Nico blinking at them, huddled under the blankets.

“I think it bit me,” he says.

Hazel laughs, high-pitched and fragile. “Yeah, it did. Are – how do you feel?”

“Sore,” he says. “Why are we here?”

“You almost died,” Percy says, leaning forward. “Are you – are you okay?”

“I what?” Nico blinks. “Oh. Sorry. I don’t want to die.” He burrows into the blankets a bit more. “I was trying to get to you and Annabeth. Oh. Hi, Annabeth.”

“You’re in the Big House,” Annabeth says, instead of responding to any of that. Nico nods slightly.

“I thought so,” he says. “Oh, hey, Ji-Min. Don’t worry, I’m going to be fine.” He digs deeper into the blankets. “Can I go back to sleep?”

“Uh…” Percy blinks. Annabeth pauses, then stands.

“Hang on one second,” she urges, and sticks her head out the door. “CHIRON!”

Chiron rolls in a moment later, now settled in his wheelchair. “Oh, hello, Nico. Glad to see you’re awake.”

“Do I have to be?” Nico asks. “I’m tired.”

“In a moment,” Chiron says, smiling. “I just need to ask a few things, make sure you’re lucid. Do you know who you are?” A few basic tests follow: name, year, focusing on a moving finger. Nico is yawning by the end, but he does fine, and Chiron rolls back with a nod. “Well, it may be some time before you feel particularly well, but you’re not in any danger at this point, I don’t think. Go ahead and sleep, Nico, and the rest of us will clear out to let you rest.”

“Oh. Okay.” Nico blinks. “Um. Goodnight.”

Ji-Min nudges past Annabeth and solemnly hauls herself onto the bed. “Goodnight,” she says, and hugs Nico tightly around the head. Nico blinks, sitting up a bit into it. She watches out for his shoulder, Annabeth notices – smart girl.

“Goodnight,” he murmurs, still looking not wholly awake. Ji-Min slips away, yawning. Hazel steps forward before Nico can lie back down, pulling him close. He buries his face in his hair.

“Love you,” he mumbles. Hazel inhales shakily, sniffs hard, and sits up.

“Love you too,” she says, and stands. Annabeth flushes, feeling intrusive, but Percy steps forward too, holding his arms out.

“Okay?” he asks. Nico blinks.

“Sure,” he says, yawning, and Percy drops onto the side of the bed to hug him too, rubbing one big hand over Nico’s back. He, too, carefully avoids the bandages; Nico’s hands tighten on the back of his shirt.

“Hi,” Percy says, into his ear. “I’m glad you’re not dead.” And with that, he lets go, standing. Annabeth shrugs.

“Me too?” she asks, moving forward. Nico blinks at her, nodding slightly, and she hugs him gently. He’s small, skinny, but she recognizes muscle under her hands. His hair is soft, and he leans against her shoulder, hugging her back.

“Be careful, Corpse Head,” she says.

“You guys didn’t have to worry so much,” Nico mumbles into her shoulder, yawning again. “It’s okay.”

“Of course we worried,” Annabeth says, patting his back. “Okay, sleep. Chiron’s orders.”

“Mmmhm.” He yawns, flopping back onto the bed, and the rest of them file on out.

It’s after lunch, the next day, when Percy slips into their room. Annabeth is there already, still planning – designing an apartment building, today. There wasn’t much call for that on Olympus. “Annabeth?” he says. “Uh. Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure, of course,” she says, easing the laptop closed, and braces her chin on her knees. “What’s up?”

“Um.” He swallows, leaning against the door, and drags his hand through his hair. “Uh. Okay. I love you, all right? I love you so much. Just like I always have.”

“That’s a worrying start,” she says, swallowing something thick and choking in her throat. It doesn’t seem likely – but then it never does – Percy smacks himself in the forehead.

“I’m not trying to break up with you or anything,” he says. “That’s the opposite of what I want to do. Sort of. I just… it’s… it’s about Nico.”

“Uh.” Annabeth blinks and pats the bed next to her. “Uh. Okay.”

Percy sits, bedframe squeaking, and drops his head in his hands. Annabeth moves the laptop aside, frowning at him. He sighs, shaking his head.

“It’s complicated,” he says at last. “I just – when he was hurt – it was. It was.”

“Frightening?” Annabeth fills in. Percy shrugs.

“I mean, yeah, but that’s not – I mean – it was like watching you get hurt,” he says, all in a rush. “And I don’t want him to leave in the fall. And –” He looks up at her, pleading. “I love you, okay? Just like I always have, that hasn’t changed, that’s basically the one thing in all this that I’m sure about, it’s you. I just. I don’t understand anything else.”

“I’m not sure I understand what’s happening,” Annabeth says slowly, rolling the words across her tongue. It almost makes sense, hovering in her mind, and she focuses on the middle distance. “Or. I don’t understand what’s confusing you, rather.”

He laughs helplessly into his palms, shaking his head. “I don’t even know how to explain it. I just. It was like watching you get hurt.”

“You said that.” She bites her lip, focusing on the middle distance as she waits for the truth to sort itself out in front of her. It does that; she almost understands what’s going on, almost. “So…”

Percy flops backward onto the bed, groaning. “I’m a sucky boyfriend.”

“You’re interested in him,” Annabeth says to the wall, and looks down at Percy. He winces, reaching for her hand.

“I’m still in love with you, I swear,” he says. “Like I said, that’s – everything else is confusing, I don’t know how this happened, but you’re still.” He swallows, squeezing her hand. “You’re still, you know, _you._ You’re – the love of my life, or whatever. You know.” He blushes. “Except apparently… I don’t know.”

“Not the only one,” Annabeth murmurs, looking down at his hand in hers. His fingernails are bitten down. She purses her lips, considering – Percy’s hand in Nico’s hair, Percy’s arms around Nico’s shoulders, things she’s seen. Percy’s hand in Nico’s, instead of hers. Or as well as hers. Percy kissing him, fingers twisted into Nico’s hair, eyes half-closed. She’s never actually seen Percy kissing other people, much; there’s a few pictures of the two of them, but not many. And if that’s what she’s thinking about, the lack of detail in what she’s imagining, then…

“So I should probably start looking up stuff about polyamory,” she says at last. Percy blinks, mouthing the word, and then bolts upright with a _gloing_ ing of springs.

“Wait, that’s a thing? That’s – I mean, it sounds like –”

“You’ve never even heard of it?” Annabeth says, blinking. “I’ve _mentioned_ polyamorous relationships to you, Percy, I know I have –”

“I think I thought it was like a portico,” he says, shrugging. “Okay, hang on, is that what it sounds like?”

“A relationship with more than one person – _yes,_ Percy, that’s why I brought it up. I don’t know any details, but I can probably find out.”

“So…” He stares, hands open on the quilt. “You’d… you’d be okay with that? Or with thinking about it, anyway, or looking into it, or –”

“ _No,_ Percy,” Annabeth says, rolling her eyes, “I only brought it up to be unpleasant to you. Of course I’m okay with looking into it. I care about Nico too.” She pauses. “I mean, I do have to think about it. But finding out more will probably help.”

He stares at her for a long few moments, then reaches forward, pulling her as close as he can. He doesn’t crush her, just clings, face buried in her neck. “You are _amazing_ ,” he whispers. “Gods, I love you.”

“I haven’t agreed to anything yet,” she says, and kisses his cheek. “Just to look into things.”

“Yeah, but you’re not furious,” Percy points out, leaning back. He kisses her nose; she wrinkles it at him. “I was already planning flowers or something, I don’t know. I’m not sure how sorry-I-have-a-crush-on-someone-else-too-but-I-still-love-you is supposed to work.”

“You might not have to apologize at all,” Annabeth says, shrugging. “And besides… I mean, you told me. I assume you haven’t been making out with him behind the Pegasus stables.”

“No!” Percy blanches. “I wouldn’t. I mean, not without telling you, I might make out with him behind the Pegasus stables if you were, like, okay with it, but I wouldn’t cheat on you or anything. I promise.”

Annabeth laughs, hugging him again quickly. “I know. Thanks.”

Percy smiles, shaking his head, and scrubs his hands over his face. “Gods, this is why I should just tell you everything immediately. I’ve been freaking out about this all day.”

“Good plan,” Annabeth agrees, and straightens her hair. “So, um. Have you had crushes on guys before?”

His eyes widen, staring. “Oh, jeez, I didn’t even think about that.”

“ _What?”_

“That he’s a guy!” Percy gestures helplessly. “I have a crush on a guy, so that probably implies something, I totally did not think about that.”

Annabeth claps both hands over her mouth to cover an outburst of giggling. “You spent all day freaking out because you’re interested in Nico di Angelo and you didn’t _notice_ that he’s a guy?”

“Of course I noticed he’s a _guy!”_ Percy says, rolling his eyes. “I just… I didn’t think about that part of it. I was a little distracted, okay?”

“Right. Okay.” Annabeth controls her sputtering ferociously and sits back. “So, uh. _Have_ you been interested in guys, before this?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Percy admits, shrugging. “I mean, I don’t _think_ I have, but like, I know that Piper’s dad is hot…”

“Oh my _gods.”_ Annabeth blanches. “Please never pass that along to Piper.”

“He was just the first person I thought of!” Percy yelps, holding his hands out to her in self-defense. “I’m not saying I’d _do_ anything, he was just an example.”

“The first possible example you can think of is Piper’s father.” Annabeth shakes her head, laughing.

“He was good enough for Aphrodite!” Percy protests, wounded.

“Yes, twenty years ago! And besides, he wasn’t related to any of Aphrodite’s friends.”

“Aphrodite wouldn’t care anyway,” Percy points out. “It’s not like the gods worry about that kind of thing.”

“Not the point,” Annabeth says, shaking her head.

“What _is_ the point?”

“I think it’s shifted,” she says, shrugging. “I think we were talking about whether Nico is an exception or a sign of a new part of the rule.”

Percy shrugs expansively, pulling a bemused face at her. “We could watch movies with hot guys in them and see if I’m interested? Guys who aren’t Piper’s dad?”

She half-laughs, half-groans, covering her face with her hands again. “Well, I don’t have a better idea, so I guess so. Got any suggestions?”

“Uh…” Percy blinks. “Wait, how would I suggest a movie based on hot men if I don’t know I think they’re hot?”

“Subconscious preference?” Annabeth offers, shrugging.

“Did you just try to trick me into skipping ahead on my gay crisis thing?”

“I’m trying to help!” Annabeth protests, holding out her hands. “What do you want from me?”

“How should I know? It’s not like I’ve had a gay crisis before!” Percy shrugs. “Or, wait, I guess this is a bisexual crisis? Or something?”

“I think if you already knew that it wouldn’t be a crisis,” Annabeth says, and flops back on the bed. “Gods, this is turning into an exciting summer. Sort of. I mean, not really, but…”

“No, it’s exciting,” Percy says, flopping onto his stomach next to her. “Like, not cabins-getting-blown-up exciting, but… with us. Stuff moving around.”

“Yeah.” Annabeth rolls sideways, kissing his cheek. “Anyway, we’ve probably got some time to figure all this out. Whatever we decide we’re going to do, we probably shouldn’t spring this on Nico as soon as he wakes up from being poisoned.”

“ _That’ll_ be an easy conversation,” Percy mumbles. “Hi, want to be my boyfriend while I have a girlfriend? Maybe I can just do what I did with you.”

“You waited around for four years until I tracked you down and kissed some sense into you,” Annabeth points out, thumping him gently on the shoulder. “I don’t think that’s going to work with Nico.”

“Oh. No, probably not.” Percy rolls over, sighing. “Have I mentioned you’re the best yet?”

“Yes,” Annabeth says, preening a little. Percy snorts.  “I’m sure, between us, we can find a good way to seduce him. If that’s what we end up deciding to do.”

**viii. Nico**

“Hey, Nico, come with us for a minute?”

Nico blinks, pushing his hair out of his eyes. His shoulder twinges only slightly; it’s been a few weeks, now, but the poison sticks. Percy is waiting at the base of the stairs, looking faintly worried, head tilted towards Annabeth to indicate her as the other half of the ‘us.’ Annabeth is halfway up the stairs, turned back to stare at Percy. Nico has no idea what to call the look on her face: stubborn, eager, excited? There’s been nothing happening but a cutthroat Gin Rummy game, no stakes.

“Sure,” he says, changing turning away from the door, and follows them. The stairs are narrow, so nobody turns back to talk, but Percy’s hands are all over – his hair, the railing, moving between sets of pockets. Something’s up.

Things stay single-file into their room, which… really is just a room, with an open door to a bathroom in one corner and an electric kettle in another. Annabeth perches on the end of the bed, hands folded firmly in her lap, while Percy scuffs at the carpet. Nico tugs the door closed behind him.

“What’s up?” he asks. “Is something wrong?”

“No, no, nothing’s wrong!” Percy says, jerking his head up. “No. We just… wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What kind of something?” Nico leans back against the door, forcing himself to breathe. They don’t _look_ angry. Percy shrugs.

“It’s, uh, it’s – I don’t –” He glances over at Annabeth, who sighs.

“We have a proposition for you,” she says, and bites her lip. Her ears are faintly pink. Nico blinks again, glancing back and forth between them.

“Okay,” he says slowly. “What is it?”

Percy grimaces, tugging at his hair again. “Um. Can I just – do something? To explain?”

“Sure,” Nico says slowly. There’s nothing bad he can imagine happening, particularly. Well, short of a dragon coming through the window, but he doubts Percy’s about to cause any such thing. Annabeth raises an eyebrow as Percy steps closer, biting his lip. He reaches out to Nico, to his face, setting his palm to Nico’s jaw and tilting his head up.

“Okay?” he asks.

“Sure…” Nico blinks, uncertain – is this some kind of blessing? Some medical thing? Something else? – and Percy leans in, closer, closer, and presses his lips to Nico’s.

It’s definitely a kiss. It’s a quiet kiss, a gentle one, but it’s a kiss, Percy’s mouth soft and gentle against his. Percy Jackson is absolutely kissing him, in his room, in front of Annabeth.

Once Percy pulls back – only a bit, eyes wide and hopeful – Nico repeats: “What?”

“Uh. That’s… what I meant.” Percy blushes. “The offer, I guess.”

“Us,” Annabeth chimes in from the bed, smoothing her hands over her knees. “The two of us. If you like.”

“I…” Nico’s too warm suddenly, looking between them, lips tingling, thinking: bedroom. Kiss. Both. “I… _why?_ ”

“We like you?” Percy offers, half-smiling. “You don’t have to, or anything. Just. It’s an offer.”

“Um.” Nico swallows, closing his eyes, and tries to breathe. He’s dizzy. “Can… can I…”

“Sure,” Percy says, hands out. “I mean, I don’t know what you’re going to end that sentence with, but probably, sure.”

“Okay.” Nico takes a deep breath, steps forward, and settles his hands on Percy’s face, a kind of mirror of what just happened. “I just…” He swallows, leans forward, and kisses Percy. Just because he has the chance. Just to see.

Percy kisses him back, warm and kind, easing Nico’s mouth open; his hands settle on Nico’s waist, big and gentle, pulling him closer. Nico shivers, tilting his head back a bit, and Percy follows him forwards, flicking his tongue – quick and light – against Nico’s lower lip. Their noses bump; Percy tilts his head, and Nico catches his breath, tries imitating that tongue thing and gets a tightening of Percy’s fingers on his back.

“So,” Percy breathes, pulling back, and then kisses Nico again, just a quick brush this time, “is that a yes?”

It wasn’t meant to be, but Percy is warm and solid, and – “Yeah,” Nico blurts. “Yeah. I. Yes.”

“Awesome,” Percy says, and kisses him again, more insistently this time. He runs his hands up and down Nico’s back as he does, making Nico shiver, rucking up his shirt to slide one hand underneath. “You’re _really_ bony,” Percy says against his lips, tracing the bumps in his spine. There’s a distinct snort from the bed, and some of the heat that seems to be taking over Nico’s body migrates to his ears, but then Percy’s kissing him again. Nico’s skin buzzes under his hands – both of them are under Nico’s shirt, now – and, emboldened, Nico slides one hand under the edges of Percy’s T-shirt in turn, resting his fingers at the thin stretch of skin that he sees _all the time._ Percy grins against his mouth and shoves his other hand in the back pocket of Nico’s jeans; Nico jumps, a little, and presses forward into Percy.

“C’mon,” Percy murmurs, tugging him back towards the bed; three quick, stumbling steps, and he pauses long enough to kiss Nico’s throat, biting him gently. Nico gasps, running his hand a little higher along Percy’s ribs.

“Hang on,” Percy says, and kisses his throat again, quickly, before stepping back. He reaches down, grins, and peels his shirt over his head, tossing it somewhere towards the corner. Nico blinks, looking. “Get that out of the way,” Percy says, tilting his head, and steps forward.

“Good,” Nico says – barely manages not to squeak – and kisses him first, this time, wrapping both his hands around Percy’s back to trace all that _skin._ He’s warm, slightly sweat-sticky – it was a hot day – and solid, lots of lean muscle under his hands. There’s a ridge of a scar on one shoulder, a soft bumpiness –old acne? Just skin? – by the nape of his neck, a thin trail of darkening hair on his stomach. Percy inhales sharply when Nico runs a finger over it, and kisses him harder, biting at his lips until Nico can barely breathe. It’s good.

“All right so far?” Percy asks, a little breathlessly, as they break apart. Nico nods, still taking in all Percy’s muscle, the shape of his body, the sharp tan line at his waist where his bathing suit sat higher than his boxers did.

“Yeah,” he manages. Percy grins and takes his hand, tugging him to a seat on the bed, and leans in for yet another kiss, his hand on Nico’s jaw again. It’s slower, back to the gentleness of before, not less overwhelming but sweet instead of desperate. Nico closes his eyes and tries to drink him in.

“Mind if I borrow him?” Annabeth asks as they separate, hooking her head over Percy’s shoulder. Nico flushes.

“Of course – I’m sorry, I didn’t mean –”

“Don’t apologize,” she says, reaching past Percy to shush him gently. Nico blinks. “I liked watching that. I liked it a _lot._ ” She grins. “That’s why I’m borrowing him, actually. If you don’t mind?”

“Yeah.” Nico inches back a little, and Annabeth grabs Percy by the back of the neck and pulls him flat on his back, leaning over to kiss him. Her hair falls past his face, and Nico flushes, hoping Percy won’t expect him to do _that._

It goes on for a minute, which is only fair – how long were he and Percy making out, after all? Gods, he’s been making out with Percy. _Gods._ Nico takes a deep breath: Percy’s mouth, Percy’s hands, Percy smiling at him, Annabeth smiling on the bed, Annabeth and Percy who fed him marshmallows and were there when he woke up from poisoning, none of the rest of it. Okay.

Percy’s shirtless, Annabeth’s T-shirt hiked halfway up her back; Nico tugs at his own shirt, pulling it past all his hair. His limbs don’t seem entirely his own, anymore, but it feels right. When he fights his way out of the cotton, Annabeth’s sitting over Percy, grinning fiercely, and her hand is… locked around his throat? Nico squeaks, and she jumps, letting him go.

“Oops,” she says. “Wasn’t thinking.”

“She’s not trying to kill me or anything, don’t worry,” Percy says, propping himself up on his elbows. He’s still gasping a little. “It’s okay, it’s just… a thing. I like it.”

“You like it,” Nico repeats, a little dizzy. Today is just full of surprises, isn’t it. Percy shrugs a shoulder.

“Yeah, it’s… kind of an adrenaline thing, you know, endorphins and stuff. And the trust is nice. Just… giving yourself up to someone, you know? Cause I know she won’t hurt me.” Annabeth, still slightly flushed, nods.

“Should’ve either not done that, or warned you,” she says. “Sorry. I got carried away.”

“It’s okay,” Nico says, bracing himself against the edge of the bed. _Trust. I know you won’t hurt me._ “Can I try it?”

“Oh, uh… sure.” Percy swings himself the rest of the way onto the bed and tilts his head back, all dim brown throat in the golden ceiling light. “Go ahead. If I tap you twice, time to let go, kay?” He taps his hand against the air, one-two, to demonstrate.

“Ah…” _No, actually, I meant me…_ Nico chokes it back, flushing, and kneels on the bed, hands hovering in the air in front of him.

“There’s a technique to it,” Annabeth says, kneeling up on Percy’s other side. She reaches over to grab Nico gently by the wrist, sliding her hand up to cup over the back of his, and guides his hand to Percy’s throat. “Get your hand against his jaw, like that, and press _up,_ into the jaw, not down. It feels the same, but it’s safer that way.”

“Okay.” Nico takes a deep breath. There’s a faint scratchiness under his fingers, half-shaved stubble, and Percy grins over his hand. “Ready?”

“When you are, that’s the point,” Percy says, grinning, and Nico swallows and tightens his grip, shoving up like Annabeth said. Percy chokes out a soft – well, strangled – gasp, eyes sliding closed, hips rolling up against the empty air, hands tightening in the blankets. Nico pushes a little harder, eyes wide, staring – the arch of Percy’s back, the curve of his eyelashes against his cheek, the way his lips part around a gasp. _I’m doing this. He likes it. He’s letting me do this._ Annabeth lets go of his hand, clutching at Percy’s shoulder instead; Nico keeps his grip steady, tight, watching Percy squirm.

“That’s close,” Annabeth says, after a moment, and Nico nods, letting the pressure go. He leaves his hand on Percy’s throat, hesitantly trailing one finger down the side of his neck.

“Was that right?” he asks. Percy grins up at him, wide-eyed and dopey.

“ _Awesome,_ ” he says. Annabeth muffles a laugh; when Nico glances at her, she’s impossibly fond, smiling gently down at Percy. At the two of them. Nico licks his lips.

“Um – can you do me?”

“What? Oh, sure.” Percy scrambles upwards, flexing his hands. “Which of us do you want to do it? She’s better at it –”

“You. Um. If that’s okay.” Nico glances at Annabeth. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she says, patting the bed. “Come on, lie down.”

“Okay…” He does, swinging himself up onto the bed between the two of them. Annabeth shifts around to make room, and his head ends up in her lap, her hands framing his head, steadying him. He leans back against her palms as Percy swings over him, straddling his hips. Nico glances down – wow, yes, that is a definite tent in Percy’s jeans, just inches from Nico who is getting pretty close to the same state by now – and Percy’s hand settles over his throat.

“Tap out as soon as you need to, okay?” Percy says, miming that one-two drum against his own thigh, and once Nico nods, he presses down.

His entire brain shuts down, spiraling along _can’t breathe can’t breathe can’t breathe_ and _it’s okay it’s Percy he’s got me._ His heart races, blood thundering through him; he claws at the blankets, trying not to jerk up too much, everything hot and cold and sharp and pounding. He whimpers.

Percy’s hand slacks off, and air floods into his lungs in pure relief, leaving his whole body abuzz and dizzy. He clenches his fingers just to see if he can still feel them – he can – and opens his eyes to find Percy staring down at him, teeth digging into his lip.

“Man, that does feel good from this side,” he says. “You okay?”

Nico inhales glorious oxygen again, flexing his hands in the softness of the bed. He feels lit up, dizzy, like after-battle without any of the fear. “Great,” he says, and settles his hands on either side of Percy’s waist, on bare warm skin, tugging him down.

“Good,” Percy says, and bites his throat, rolling his hips down and _oh._ Nico jerks up, wanting that again, that heat, yes, _there,_ rubbing his cock against Percy’s through their jeans and _oh dear gods that’s happening._ He buries his face in Percy’s shoulder, panting – this is real. This is happening.

“You okay?” Annabeth asks, her fingers in his hair, reaching down to claim one hand. Nico nods, clinging to her fingers, rubbing up against Percy again. Her hand in his is an anchor, something solid in all this flooding dizzy moving good.

“Please don’t stop,” he whispers, clutching at Percy’s hair with his free hand, sliding his fingers between Annabeth’s to hang on. Percy laughs and nips at his collarbone, trails his tongue over Nico’s chest and oh shit oh shit that is his mouth on Nico’s nipple, sensation hitting him like an electric shock.

“Not stopping,” Percy whispers, and sucks him in earnest – this is ridiculous, it’s a nipple, oh _gods_ Nico was never this sensitive before, what on Earth. He whimpers, trying to burrow back against Annabeth and push up into Percy at once, heat buzzing under his skin.

Finally, Percy comes up for air, grinning above him. “So, this was a good idea,” he says. All Nico can do is nod muzzily.

“I’m feeling a little overdressed,” Annabeth says, and there’s a rustle of fabric. Nico tilts his head up just in time to see a T-shirt and a bra go flying across the room, separating in midair. Logically enough, he tilts his head back just in time to meet the underside of Annabeth’s breasts.

“Uh, hello,” he says. Annabeth laughs.

“Hi,” she says, petting his cheek. Some instinct makes him nip at her fingers, and she laughs again, brushing back his hair.

“Gimme a second?” Percy says to Nico, smiling, and leans up to kiss Annabeth, who leans over to do it. The angle’s weird, but, watching – Annabeth letting go of Nico long enough for her hands to wander over all the sharp planes of Percy’s back, Annabeth’s teeth on Percy’s lips, Percy panting into Annabeth’s mouth – it’s good. Percy was kissing him like that, seconds ago. Annabeth liked watching Percy kiss him; that’s where some of the heat in this comes from. He’s lying under Percy, in Annabeth’s lap, in their bed, watching Annabeth dig her fingers into Percy’s shoulders and Percy cupping her breast in his hand.

He doesn’t mean to squirm up, doesn’t mean to interrupt, but he does, and Percy breaks away from her, smiling down at him. “Hang on for one second, let me grab something, okay?” he asks. Nico nods, and Percy pries himself off the bed, rummaging around in the dresser.

“What is he…” Annabeth murmurs, and shakes her head, resettling Nico in her lap. Nico flushes, looking up at her, and swallows hard.

“Can I kiss you?” he blurts. Annabeth’s eyebrows wrinkle.

“You don’t have to,” she says, carefully.

“I know. But.” Nico shrugs, shoulders bumping against her thigh. “I want to.”

She’s still frowning, puzzled, but she nods. “Okay,” she says, and bends down to meet him, mouth cool and certain against his. Nico opens up under her, trying, taking her in.

She sits back after a moment, raising her eyebrows. “I didn’t think you liked girls.”

Nico shrugs, raising one hand to his lips again. It’s probably a silly gesture, but it doesn’t matter. “It’s not… exciting, the same way,” he says slowly. “But it’s nice.”

Annabeth frowns again, then shrugs, visibly tucking the question away. “Well, either way,” she says, and smiles, leaning down to kiss him again. It’s quick, gentle, and still nice.

“Annabeth?” Percy calls. “Do we still have condoms anywhere?”

“I have no idea,” she says, straightening up. Nico flushes.

“We might not need them?” he offers. “I mean, I, uh. I can’t have anything.”

Percy, by the dresser, straightens, blinking at him. “Oh, shit, you haven’t done this before?”

“Percy,” Nico says slowly. “Who do you think I would’ve been sleeping with?”

“Well I don’t know!” Percy shrugs, holding out his hand. “Some guy in Oregon?”

Nico just looks at him. Annabeth snorts softly. Percy blinks.

“Okay, hang on,” he says, stepping back to drop to the edge of the bed again. “So Annabeth is the only one here who’s slept with a guy before.” He looks kind of gobsmacked.

“It’s not that hard to figure out,” Annabeth says.

“I’m… pretty sure anything you do to me right now will be good,” Nico adds. It comes out embarrassingly breathy, and Percy’s eyes light up. He trails one hand down Nico’s stomach.

“Well, that’s encouraging,” he says, and hooks his fingers into the waistband of Nico’s jeans. “So, uh…”

“Go ahead,” Nico breathes, jerking up. Percy grins, fumbling with Nico’s fly, and bends over to kiss Nico’s stomach. All the air leaves Nico’s lungs.

“Okay?” Percy asks, finally getting Nico’s zipper open. Nico nods, chewing his lip, and Percy starts slowly peeling his jeans away from him. Nico swallows, forcing himself not to hide his face as his cock springs (sort of ridiculously) free.

“Good to see you’re enjoying yourself,” Percy says, and reaches out to brush a thumb over the thread, trailing clear fluid. Nico squeaks.

“Don’t choke on it,” Annabeth suggests. Percy rolls his eyes, wraps a hand around Nico’s cock – oh, _gods,_ please yes – and bends his head. Nico nearly chokes on his tongue as Percy’s mouth wraps around him. Shivers roll up his spine. Then Percy _sucks,_ and Nico whimpers, clutching at Annabeth with both hands because it’s too much, it’s so much, white-hot and urgent and _oh gods,_ please keep doing that, please never stop. Percy hums appreciatively around his dick – that just happened – and Nico’s back arches. He’s not sure he’s still breathing. Percy sucks at him again, hot tongue and cold air and it’s too much, it’s too much, it’s too much –

He doesn’t realize he’s about to come until he’s already coming, shaking himself apart, Percy pulling back in surprise just in time for a stripe of white to catch him across the face, right at the edge of his mouth. Nico flushes as his limbs go still, collapsing back against the mattress. “Sorry. I should’ve…”

“No worries,” Percy says easily, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. He pauses, glances at his hand, then wipes it on the bed.

“ _Percy,_ ” Annabeth says.

“Oh, c’mon, we had to wash the sheets anyway,” Percy says. “And your feet don’t reach down here. So!” This last is directed at Nico; Percy knee-walks up the bed. “Good?”

“Yes. Definitely.” Nico blushes, looking Percy up and down. There’s still a smudge of white on his chin, and he’s still hard, outline of his cock clear against his jeans. Nico almost says _that can’t be comfortable,_ but his nerve fails him, and his limbs still feel trailing, half-attached.

“Perfect.” Percy grins, then leans in and kisses him again, wrapping one hand around the back of Nico’s head, which leaves his hand resting against Annabeth’s thigh. It’s nice, tender. Kind. “Awesome.”

“Thanks,” Nico blurts, and blushes, ducking his head. Percy laughs.

“You’re welcome,” he says, and looks up. “So, Annabeth. Your turn?”

“ _Please,”_ she says, reaching over, and Nico rolls out of her lap, settling curled on his side to watch as they go at each other. Annabeth bites at Percy’s throat; Percy snaps her jeans open with one hand, clearly practiced, and lets out a low, slow groan when Annabeth rakes her fingernails down his back. Nico wants to do that too, suddenly, looking at the sharp red lines; wants Percy marked up, wants scratches sore and tender on his own back, wants all of it. Next time, if there is a next time.

“C’mon,” Percy grunts, tugging Annabeth’s jeans not-quite-off, just down; she drops back to sit on her heels, leaning her forehead against his shoulder, and some instinct makes Nico pull himself up, sit behind her and curl around her from the back.

“Okay?” he asks in her ear, wrapping around her waist. She feels different than Percy, less hairy – obviously – and with a little more cushioning over the hard muscle of her stomach. She leans back into him easily, her hair tickling his face, and Nico has a clear view down her body of Percy’s thin brown fingers sliding into her. He flushes hard, and Annabeth gasps, hips arcing up, her head turned to bury in his chest. Percy’s free hand slides between her and Nico, helping him to brace her up.

“That’s good, that’s good,” she murmurs, “more, c’mon, more…”

“You got it,” Percy breathes, eyes wide and dark, teeth dug into his lip, and does something Nico can’t see that makes Annabeth spasm against him. Carefully, Nico kisses the back of her neck, the side of her shoulder. Her skin is faintly salty. Annabeth pants, squirming; could he have moved that much, in her lap? He must’ve. He hesitates, then reaches down to cup her breast; it feels strange, kind of silly, but he rubs a thumb across the bump of her nipple and gets an extra gasp out of it, so apparently he’s doing something right. Although maybe that was what Percy was doing.

He’s not sure how long he sits like that, watching Percy bring Annabeth to pieces in his arms; finally she throws her head back, gasping, eyes closed, every muscle in her body wire-tight under his hands. Then she drops, sudden enough that Nico almost tips backwards under her weight, and Percy laughs, sitting back. Three of his fingers are shining, fluid coating them; he holds two up to his mouth and licks them clean. Annabeth shivers; Nico crawls out from under her and reaches for Percy.

“Can I –” he starts, and kisses him, discovering an amazing amount of tangy sourness under his tongue; Percy’s hand slides into his hair, which is a little gross, but Percy’s hard-on is digging into his own bare thigh and Percy pants into his mouth, eager, and Nico breaks away to inhale and reach for Percy’s jeans. “You need to…”

“Oh shit, please,” Percy says, knocking Nico’s hand aside to divest himself of his own jeans, kicking them free. There is a faint and worrying thud from the far side of the wall, but Percy either wasn’t wearing boxers or ditched them so now his cock is sticking up between them, flushed red, a little shorter and a little thicker than Nico’s own.

“Okay,” Nico mutters, “I have one of these. I can do this.” Annabeth laughs, bright and loud.

“He’s pretty easy by now anyway,” she says. Percy rolls his eyes.

“Thanks, Annabeth.”

“It’s kind of reassuring,” Nico mutters, bites his lip, glances down again, decides against involving his lips in this any further, and wraps one hand around Percy’s cock instead. As hard as Percy himself is, the skin of his cock is soft, dry except for right up at the head, and Percy hisses when he tugs. Nico tries again, rubbing his thumb over the head, trying to get a rhythm going, listening to Percy gasp.

“Faster?” he asks.

“Sure,” Nico says, trying, and is rewarded with Percy panting, thrusting forward into his hand.

“Roll his balls around a little,” Annabeth offers, stretched out sideways next to them, watching with a languid smile on her face. She managed to divest herself completely of her jeans at some point. Nico swallows and reaches his other hand forward, trying; he’s never actually tried this for himself, but he rubs his fingers over the folds of skin, tries pressing a little at the space just behind and gets another gleeful whimper for his efforts.

“C’mon?” he tries, aiming for low-pitched and ending up at sort of hoarse; he tugs at Percy’s cock again, one-two, and feels thick liquid slide between his fingers. Percy exhales, slowly; Nico tugs again, gentler, as a second spurt of come and a third spill over his hand. Finally he lets go, glances down at his palm – sticky, shining with evidence of what he just did – and up at Percy. Percy’s smiling.

“Awesome,” he says again, and leans forward, kissing Nico one more time. Nico kisses him back, one hand at his hip, the other hand hovering in the air uncertainly, since – well, it is messy.

“Here,” Annabeth says, once they come up for air. She hands him a box of tissues. “Although we’ve already ruined the sheets.”

“Thanks,” Nico says, grabbing a fistful and scrubbing at his hand. Annabeth leans past him to clean up Percy, slow and careful; Percy leans into her, eyes closed, and lets her wipe him clean. Nico drops his now-gross Kleenex in the wastebasket by the bed, sits up, and finds the two of them looking at him.

“Stay with us?” Annabeth offers. “There’s room.”

“Oh, uh…” Nico pauses, glancing down at their intertwined legs. He thinks of his small bed in the Hades cabin, how cold the sheets will be compared to this warm space. “If… you’re sure.”

“Of course we’re sure,” Percy says, rolling his eyes. “We’re not going to seduce you and then kick you out of bed, c’mon.”

“Oh. Okay.” Nico leans back on the pillows, realizing he’s smiling; the other two curl in around him, one on either side. The air is cool; he tugs the sheet up. Percy helps. “Um.” They’re all three naked, under here; he should be able to ask, but he half-hides his face in the pillow just in face. “So was this… a one-time thing, or what?”

“No!” Percy says, startling upright. “I mean, not unless you want it to be. I mean, this wasn’t just a sex thing.” Annabeth doesn’t speak, just rests a hand between his shoulder blades. Nico flushes, burrowing into the pillow a little more, smiling.

“Oh,” he says. “I… I don’t want it to be. I liked this.” The last comes out as a barely-comprehensible mumble, but Percy squeezes his hand.

“Awesome,” he says. “We’re a thing.”

Nico’s warm, sleepy, just drifting off when Percy pokes him on the back. When he rolls over, Percy is reaching past him to poke Annabeth. She blinks, shoving hair out of her eyes.

“I just remembered,” Percy says. “Mom told me the other day that Paul’s got a friend who’s trying to rent this loft for cheap and Mom thinks you and I could probably get it, if we want to leave camp this fall.  And like, Nico, you could stay with us whenever you wanted, come with us to look at it, whatever. Since you don’t know what you’re doing after this, I mean.”

Annabeth utters a muffled choking noise and thumps her head gently against the pillow. “Oh my gods, _Percy.”_

“What?” Percy blinks. “What’d I do?”

“We _just_ sprung this on him and you’re asking him to move _in with us_ after one night?” She shakes her head, hair flying everywhere. “What is wrong with you?”

“I just remembered!” Percy protests. “I wanted to say something before I forgot again!”

“I don’t mind,” Nico offers. “I mean…”

Annabeth sighs. “Well, if we’re not scaring you off, I guess. We’ll figure something out.”

“See how it goes,” Percy agrees sleepily. “You should come with us to look at it though, if we do. Be backup and stuff.”

“Okay.” Nico yawns, and rolls back over into the pillows. They’ll figure that out tomorrow. Right now he’s curled up between Percy and Annabeth in their bed, sticky and sweaty and happy. That’s enough.

**_epilogue: fourteen months later_ **

The stairs of the loft creak softly, and Percy turns to find Nico shuffling down, dressed in his boxer shorts and an old T-shirt, one hand pressed to the rough brick wall. There’s a perfectly good banister, but apparently it’s too thin to trust or something. Nico is adorable, and Percy loves him, but he kind of has chicken legs.

“Morning,” Percy says, leaning against the counter. Nico smiles at him, shoving his hair out of his eyes.

“Morning,” he says. “Where’s Annabeth?”

“In there,” Percy says, jerking a thumb at the bathroom, where the shower is roaring away. “She should be out in a minute.” He turns back to the stove, shoving the spatula through the frying pan. “These look done. Grab some plates?”

“What did you make?” Nico asks, heading for the cabinet.

“Eggs! Scrambled. With cheese.” Percy has to shout the last word over the clatter of a passing garbage truck outside the window, loud even for New York garbage trucks. Nico sticks his head around the cabinet door, squinting suspiciously.

“Are they blue?”

“Uh, they turned out sort of green, actually,” Percy says, eyeing them. “They’re gonna be black if you don’t get me some plates, though. And I used all the eggs.”

“Are they going to taste of anything except food coloring?” Nico asks, handing him the first chipped plate. Percy tilts a rough third of the eggs onto it and hands it back.

“If I’d put that much food coloring in them, they wouldn’t have come out green,” Percy says, loading up the second plate. “I think Annabeth ate the toast I was making, but there’s more bread.”

“Miracle of miracles,” Annabeth says, letting the bathroom door bang shut behind her. She’s still twisting a coil of damp hair up into a ponytail, water beading on her neck. “And you definitely ate the last piece. Hey, Nico. What time did you get in last night?”

“Around two,” Nico says, taking the third plate of eggs from Percy. “I felt kind of weird just crawling in, but I didn’t want to wake you guys.”

“We didn’t give you a key for decoration,” Percy points out, tugging out a chair. The other two sit; both their legs brush Percy under the table. It’s nice. “Crawl in anytime.”

“The key is to the apartment, not the bed,” Nico says.

“Well, we’re not going to make you sleep on the couch,” Annabeth says, rolling her eyes.

“Oh, by the way!” Percy jumps in. “There’s some really great new candy I brought home from work the other day, you should try one. They’re like, chocolate caramel bacon things.” He waves at the little Sweet on America bag on the corner of the counter.

“Mmm,” Nico says, through his green eggs. He swallows hard. “Is work… good, then?”

“Yeah. I thought some old guy might’ve been a monster the other day, but nope, just an ordinary pain in the ass.” Percy shrugs, stretching. “There was this cute old lesbian couple just after that who chatted about everything, though. That was nice.” Nico offers an approving grunt through his eggs.

“I aced a History of Design test last week,” Annabeth adds, shoving her hair back to reclaim some more toast. She tosses a slice to Nico; Percy pouts at her and gets a gentle kick in the shin in return. “It wasn’t all Greek stuff, either.”

“Mmmphrationphs,” Nico says, and swallows. “Sorry. Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” She grins, swallowing from her second cup of coffee. Percy got it ready while she was in the shower, because why waste time. “So,” she continues, “how long do we have you this time?”

“I don’t know.” Nico shrugs, looking at the tabletop. “I figured… I don’t know. I’d stay until I have to leave, if that’s okay?”

“You’re going to need more clothes than you brought, then,” Annabeth says, and looks at Percy. He grins back, and reaches over to squeeze Nico’s hand. Annabeth’s knee knocks against his under the table.

“Glad to have you,” he tells Nico. Nico smiles back, ducking his head. Annabeth watches them over the edge of her coffee mug, eyes loving and warm. Tomorrow Percy’s got work with people who remember his mom, and she’s got classes that she’s acing, and Nico’s going to be here, in their apartment, with them, not planning on leaving. Today the sunlight is falling over the three of them in the two-small kitchen that they can just squeeze into, and in Central Park the trees are changing color, and the world doesn’t need saving, and his boyfriend and his girlfriend are both here.

“You know,” Percy says, “this isn’t really how I pictured my life turning out.”

“What did you picture?” Annabeth asks. The tilt of Nico’s head suggests he’s asking the same question. Percy shrugs.

“A lot less happy.”


End file.
